7// '^±3-^ 

THE  LABOR  PEOBLEM 

PLAIN  QUESTIONS  AND  PRACTICAL  ANSWERS 


EDITED  BY 

WILLIAM    E.   BARNS 


^rt'-        35/ 

VTRODUCTION  BY  )Q.    ^     f"^ 

T.  ELY,  Pn.D.         D-^/TJ 


WITH  AN  INTROD 

RICHARD 

AND 

SPECIAL  CONTRIBUTIONS  BY 

JAMES  A.  WATERWORTU  and  FRED  WOODROW 


LIBRARY. 


-S^tbrooVS>- 

NEW    YORK 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  FRANKLIN  SQUARE 

188G 


Copyright,  18SC,  by  IIakper  &  Brotheks. 
All  rights  reserved. 


PEEPACE. 


The  greater  part  of  the  matter  contained  in  this 
volume  appeared  originally  in  the  colnnms  of  The 
Age  of  Steel,  St.  Louis.  It  has,  however,  been  care- 
fullj  revised  and  rearranged.  The  contributors  to 
the  "Symposium  on  Various  Phases  of  the  Labor 
Question,"  and  the  chapter  on  "Trades -unions  and 
Arbitration,"  are  busy  men  who  were  compelled  by 
the  circumstances  of  the  case  to  write  briefly. 

The  Editor. 


G89()3G 

INST.  nraCS.  BBL. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I.  PAGE 

Co-operation  in  Literatdkk  and  the  State 7 

By  Richard  T.  Ely,  Ph.D. 

CHAPTER  II. 
TnK  Conflict  Hlstorically  Considered lY 

By  James  A.  Waterworth. 

CHAPTER  III. 

a  symposium  on  several  phases  of  the  labor  question. 
Motive  ov  the  Incjuiuv.     Views  op  Political  Economists      .     52 

CHAPTER  IV. 

A   8YMP0SIUM-C«;i/inKt<i. 

Views  of  Manufacturers 75 

CHAPTER  V. 

a  SYMPOSIUM-Oiitinued. 

Views  of  Woukinq-mkn 113 

CHAPTER  VI. 

a   SYMPOSIUM-Cunfinuerf. 

View.s  of  Divines 110 


0  CONTENTS. 

CllAlTEU  Vll.  lAiiB 

A   SYMrOSIUM-rwKinucrf. 

ViKws  or  Ladoii  Commissioskrs 158 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

A  SYMPOSIUM-G/ii/.nutrf. 
ViKWS    OF    iToLRNAt.ISTS  AND    OtIIERS 167 

CHAPTER  IX. 
A  Plea  kok  Pr.OFiT-siiARiNO 200 

CHAPTER  X. 

TnADES-lNIONS    AND    AuBITRATION 231 

CHAPTER  XI. 

SlDE-LIGIITS   ON   THE    LaBOR   PROBLEM 256 

By  Fred  Woodrow. 


THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 


CHAPTER  I. 

BY 

RICHARD  T.  ELY,  Pn.D. 


CO-OPERATION  IN  LITERATURE  AND  TUE  STATE. 

Co-operation  lias  been  urged  as  the  only  satisfactory 
solution  of  the  labor  problem ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  in  the  one  form  or  other  it  will  yet  be  the  predom- 
inating influence  in  the  production  and  distribution  of 
economic  goods,  though  it  does  not  now  eeem  probable 
that  its  early  advocates  were  quite  successful  in  their  at- 
tempts to  lay  down  the  lines  of  its  future  development. 
However  that  may  be,  the  various  kinds  of  co-operation 
are  gradually  making  their  way,  and  are  winning  success  of 
large  proportions.  This  movement  has  not  been  sufficiently 
appreciated, and  has, indeed,  never  been  adequately  described. 
The  latest  brilliant  achievement  to  be  placed  to  the  credit 
of  co-operation  is  in  literature,  in  which,  indeed,  it  is  mak- 
ing rapid  headway.  An  example  may  bo  found  in  a  work 
on  our  own  history.  It  appears  that  wo  are  at  last  to  have 
an  excellent  history  of  America.  Individual  effort  has  of- 
ten essayed  the  task,  but  has  never  succeeded  in  giving  us 
such  a  history.     Finally,  however,  Professor  Justin  Win- 


8  TIIK    LAIiOK    rUODLEM. 

sor,  of  IlaivarJ  University,  secured  the  co-operation  of  fif- 
teen "  learned  and  historical  societies,"  and  of  more  than 
twice  that  number  of  writers,  and  planned  his  "  Narrative 
and  Critical  History  of  America."  The  warm  reception 
accorded  tlie  first  published  volume  seems  ahnost  to  justify 
the  estimate  of  the  value  of  this  method  made  by  Profess- 
or "Winsor's  publishers  in  their  prospectus  :  "  When  the  su- 
periority of  the  co-operative  method  is  fully  understood, 
the  individual  historian,  if  he  ventures  forth  at  all,  will  be 
read  for  entertainment  rather  than  profit." 

Political  economy  furnishes  a  most  telling  illustration  of 
the  advantages  of  co-operation.  The  science  has  grown  to 
such  dimensions  that  even  the  specialist  can  scarcely  mas- 
ter the  whole  of  it,  while  few  can  hope  to  be  original  in- 
vestigators in  every  department  of  this  growing  branch  of 
learning.  There  was  a  time  when  even  the  dilettante  in 
economics  could,  on  short  notice,  venture  to  prepare  a  text- 
book of  political  economy,  but  such  a  person  will  now  turn 
away  from  the  task,  provided  he  has  any  regard  for  his 
future  reputation.  The  late  Stanley  Jevons,  profoundly 
impressed  with  the  vastness  of  the  work  of  the  political 
economist,  urged  the  necessity  of  the  establishment  of  sev- 
eral chairs  of  economics  in  every  great  university,  because 
lie  thought  the  science  too  large  for  any  one  professor.  It 
will  readily  be  admitted  from  all  this  that  it  is  hardly 
reasonable  to  expect  a  single  author  to  write  a  satisfactory 
economic  treatise ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  only  text- 
book of  political  economy  which  presents  the  science  as  it 
is  to-day,  is  the  great  work  edited  by  Schonberg,  and  writ- 
ten by  more  than  twenty  of  the  most  distinguished  econ- 
omists of  our  time.* 


*  Schonberg's  "  Ilandbuch  der  Politischen  Oekononiie."    Tiibinf^cn, 
Germany.     Second  edition.     1880. 


CO-OPERATION    IN    LITEIIATCRE    AND    THE    STATE.  9 

The  story  of  co-operation  itself  will  soon  offer  an  exam- 
ple, for  the  writer  of  these  lines  has  undertaken  to  edit  a 
"  History  of  Co-operation  in  America,"  to  be  written  on 
the  co-operative  plan,  and  six  persons  have  promised  their 
co-operation.  The  present  work  also  illustrates  the  advan- 
tages of  co-operation  in  literature,  and  the  value  of  the 
method  is  such  that  it  must  have  its  own  place — and  that 
an  important  place  —  in  the  labor  literature  of  America. 
Editors,  economists,clergymen,manufacturers,working-nien, 
and  statisticians  have  united  their  efforts  to  give  us  a  pres- 
entation of  certain  phases  of  the  labor  problem  from  every 
point  of  view  which  can  demand  a  hearing.  Every  side  is 
represented,  and  each  one  is  allowed  to  speak  in  his  own 
words.  The  projectors  of  this  work  would  be  the  last  per- 
sons to  claim  for  it  that  it  exhausts  the  subject  under  dis- 
cussion, but  they  may  well  urge  in  its  behalf  that  it  is  a  val- 
uable contribution  to  our  store  of  knowledge,  and  is  worthy 
the  attention  of  all  serious  minds. 

It  may  be  well,  in  this  introduction,  to  call  attention  to 
one  fundamental  factor  in  every  economic  and  social  ques- 
tion of  our  time,  namely,  the  State  ;  for  the  fact  is  not  suffi- 
ciently appreciated  that  reformation  of  our  State  life  must 
precede  any  solution  of  the  labor  problem. 

"  The  State,"  writes  a  valued  correspondent,*  "  is  the 
largest  form  of  our  social  life.  It  embraces  all  other  forms, 
and,  to  a  larger  extent  than  is  generally  comprehended,  de- 
termines their  limitations." 

The  State  is  the  starting-point  of  modern  industrial  as 
well  as  social  life,  and  the  necessity  for  a  more  careful 
study  of  State  relations  and  a  higher  State  life  proceeds 
from  the  fact  that  a  wrong  beginning  deranges  and  viti- 
ates all  our  subsequent  work.     Imagine  the  absence  of  the 

*  In  .1  priv;itf!  l<'tt(>r. 


10  THE    tAnOR    rnOBLEM, 

Stale.  \\  hat  liavoyuu?  Why,  anarchy  ;  and  anarchy  means 
a  return  to  barbarism  and  the  ovcrtlirow  of  the  work  of  cen- 
turies. The  State  implies  order  and  the  continuity  of  prog- 
ress, the  cumulation  of  the  efforts  of  passing  generations 
until  the  destiny  of  mankind  on  earth  is  attained.  The 
State  alone  can  guarantee  the  existence  of  the  peaceful 
association  of  man  with  his  fellows,  and  only  through 
such  association  can  we  advance  in  wealth,  knowledge,  and 
moral  culture.  It  is  on  this  account  that  Aristotle  pro- 
claimed the  memorable  sentence:  "  Man  is  by  nature  a  po- 
litical being,"  or  it  might  be  better  to  say  "  State  being," 
to  avoid  the  use  of  a  degraded  but  once  noble  word.  This  is 
also  what  was  meant  by  the  distinguished  German  economist, 
Gustav  Schmoller,  when  he  uttered  these  pregnant  words : 
"  The  State  is  the  grandest  existing  ethical  institution  for 
the  education  of  the  human  race."  The  State  means  the 
conservation  of  energy.  It  is  the  only  agency  through 
which  this  energy  of  civilization  can  be  maintained.  This 
is  the  explanation  of  the  divinity  of  the  State.  It  is  the 
product  of  our  human  nature,  and  was  designed  by  God  to 
be,  with  the  family  and  the  Church,  the  basis  of  the  social, 
economic,  and  ethical  life  of  man.  St.  Paul  was  profound- 
ly moved  by  the  idea  of  the  divinity  of  the  State,*  and 
this  is  the  truth  which  was  misapprehended  and  perverted 
when  this  special  sanctity  was  transferred  to  a  particular 
person,  and  the  alleged  "divinity  of  kings  "was  raised  up 
as  a  barrier  against  progress.  It  is  the  recognition  of  this 
truth  in  all  its  bearings  which  constitutes  the  grandeur  of 
Socrates'  death.  The  laws  were  wrong,  and  an  innocent 
man  had  been  unjustly  condemned  to  death  ;  but  Socrates 
refused  to  flee  because  he  held  obedience  to  the  State  to 
be  a  sacred  duty. 

*  I'We  Romans  xiii. 


CO-OPERATION    IN    LITERATURE    AND    THE    STATE.        11 

It  is  in  vain  to  urge  the  corrupt  condition  of  our  polit- 
ical life  as  an  argument  against  an  exalted  view  of  the 
State.  It  has  been  well  said  by  a  gifted  friend  of  the 
writer  that  one  might  as  well  carry  on  a  crusade  against 
the  human  skin — not  the  skin  of  any  one  man,  but  human 
skin  in  general.  "What  a  dreadful  thing  indeed  is  this  hu- 
man skin  !  Full  of  sores  and  all  manner  of  disease,  and  a 
constant  source  of  pain  and  a  frequent  cause  of  death ! 
What  does  the  reader  say  to  one  who  argues  like  this? 
Why,  he  replies,  "To  be  sure,  my  friend,  disobedience  to 
the  laws  of  nature  on  the  part  of  past  generations,  as  well 
as  on  our  own  part,  has  produced  disease  and  suffering ; 
but  our  skin  is  something  necessary  to  our  existence.  Lot 
us  direct  our  attention  to  the  improvement  of  our  natural 
covering  by  the  application  of  the  principles  of  hygiene  and 
medicine,  and  let  us  determine  hereafter  to  lead  upright 
lives,  such  as  must  be  approved  by  God  and  man.  We 
may  then  hope  to  improve  the  human  skin.  This  is  our 
only  possible  course,  for  without  it  we  cannot  live." 

Some  have  said  that  the  duty  of  the  State  must  be  re- 
stricted to  the  protection  of  life  and  property  against  fraud 
and  violence.  This  is  a  narrow  and  inadequate  conception 
of  the  State ;  but  even  the  performance  of  these  functions 
requires  a  vast  apparatus,  and  the  end  in  view  can  be  at- 
tained only  by  the  co-operation  of  a  multitude  of  able  and 
upright  men.  We  can  make  no  beginning  in  civilized  life 
unless  person  and  property  receive  tolerably  good  protec- 
tion ;  but  this  requires  soldiers,  judges,  legislators,  diplo- 
matists, scholars,  clerks,  and  other  classes  of  civil  service 
employes.  But  even  when  the  State  does  least,  it  must 
prescribe  regulations  concerning  contracts,  and  must  en- 
force them  when  they  conform  to  these  regulations;  laws 
governing  inheritance  must  be  passed  and  executed.  Laws 
are  likewise  everywhere  found  designed  to   promote  the 


12  TllK    l.AUOU    rKOni.EM. 

welfare  of  the  weak  and  the  feeble — in  particular  of  tlie 
insane — of  children,  and  of  the  aged.  Every  Christian 
countrv  further  attempts  to  throw  a  special  shield  about 
woman.  It  is  also  found  necessary  in  every  advanced 
country  to  regulate  coinage  and  to  establish  normal  weights 
and  nioasures.  It  is  seen  then  how  large  must  be  the  range 
of  the  functions  of  the  State,  even  were  it  attempted  to 
make  the  State  conform  to  the  ideas  of  those  doctrinaires 
whose  watchword  is  '''■  laissez  faire  f  or,  let  people  take 
care  of  themselves,  let  the  State  not  intermeddle  in  indus- 
trial affairs. 

But  the  result  of  attempts  to  apply  this  narrow  view 
is  always  disastrous.  There  are  many  functions  of  a  gen- 
eral nature  which  the  State  must  perform  or  transfer  to 
individuals,  and  transfer  with  these  functions  the  power 
to  govern  and  to  oppress  the  people.  The  idea  is  to 
stimulate  individual  initiative  and  individual  industry,  but 
the  consequence  is  that  a  few  clever  or  fortunate  people 
— often  successful  because  more  unscrupulous  than  oth- 
ers— restrict  the  activities  of  their  fellows,  and  effectually 
repress  the  freest  expansion  of  the  energies  of  the  people. 
This  is  the  essence  of  the  just  complaints  of  those  who  cry 
out  against  monopoly.  Kulership  is  transferred  from  the 
people  to  a  few.  Wc  start  with  the  intention  of  securing 
unlimited  freedom  ;  we  end  in  the  supremacy  of  an  offen- 
sive and  uncontrolled  oligarchy. 

The  prosperity  of  the  people  requires  that  the  State 
— which  is  nothing  but  the  people  in  their  collective  ca- 
pacity— should  perform  functions  which  cannot  be  trans- 
ferred to  private  parties  for  any  one  of  these  reasons : 
namely,  because  they  in  their  nature  are  not  suitable  to  be 
performed  by  any  other  than  a  public  and  responsible  au- 
thority, like  the  administration  of  justice,  and  like  the  post- 
office  and  telegraph ;  because  private  parties  can  never  be 


CO-OPERATION    IN    LITERATURE    AND    THE    STATE.        13 

trusted  to  funilsh  an  adequate  and  satisfactory  supply  of 
a  particular  category  of  goods  and  services  generally  need- 
ed, as,  for  example,  schools  of  all  kinds  and  certain  great 
public  works  like  river  and  harbor  improvements ;  be- 
cause private  methods  are  too  wasteful,  or  because  private 
parties  cannot  be  relied  upon  to  exercise  justly  the  im- 
mense power  which  would  thus  be  transferred  to  them,  as, 
for  example,  canals,  roads,  and  railways.  Dr.  James  per- 
ceived the  fundamental  character  of  these  services  when 
he  replied  to  the  questions  sent  out  by  the  Affe  of  Steel:* 
"  Arbitration,  profit-sharing,  productive  co-operation  are 
all  expedients  —  makeshifts,  I  had  almost  called  them — 
which  may  help  tide  over  a  crisis  in  national  industry,  but 
Avhich  cannot  be  relied  upon  to  keep  permanent  peace  and 
order.  ...  I  would  only  call  attention  to  one  set  of  forces 
which,  to  my  mind,  cannot  much  longer  be  allowed  to 
work  unchecked  without  seriously  aggravating  the  problem. 
I  mean  those  forces  which  control  in  the  management  of 
our  most  important  means  of  transportation,  viz.,  the  rail- 
roads. .  .  .  No  system  of  co-operation  or  profit-sharing,  or 
even  arbitration  on  a  large  scale,  can  succeed  until  it  is 
possible  to  make  some  estimate  of  the  railroad  tax,  which 
is  in  many  cases  destructive  no  less  by  its  amount  than  by 
its  uncertainty."  f 

When  the  reader  reflects  upon  these  principles,  the  fact 
will  become  clear  that  the  proper  functions  of  federal, 
state,  and  municipal  government  are  many  and  are  of  fun- 
damental importance.  They  must  be  performed  in  order 
to  promote  justice  between  man  and  man,  and  also  to  en- 
courage the  development  of  individual  activity.  The  prop- 
er fulfilment  of  public  functions  will  give  the  best  stimu- 
lus to  self-reliance  and  self-exertion.     People  must  secure 

*  Vide  p.  04.  f  Vide  p.  OC. 


11  THE    LAUOll    rUOBLEM. 

by  co-operation  the  means  for  individual  development. 
\Vc  thus  find  a  proper  field  for  the  exercise  of  every  facul- 
ty of  man's  nature,  and  we  discover  that  socialism  and  in- 
dividualism arc  alike  destructive,  while  the  normal  condi- 
tion is  the  satisfactory  union  of  the  two  forces.  It  may 
even  be  that  individualism  is  the  more  injurious  of  the 
two  when  carried  to  an  extreme;  for  in  such  a  case  the 
strong  and  cunning,  either  as  individuals  or  in  combina- 
tions, will  grasp  the  means  of  development  in  economic 
and  social  relations,  and  will  deny  them  to  the  many,  and 
the  prostration  of  hope — which  is  seen  to  some  extent 
among  ns  now  —  is  deadening  in  its  private  and  public 
consequences.  On  this  point  wise  words  uttered  by  John 
Stuart  Mill  should  be  seriously  pondered :  "  Energy  and 
self-dependence  are,  however,  liable  to  be  impaired  by  the 
absence  of  help,  as  well  as  by  its  excess.  It  is  even  more 
fatal  to  exertion  to  have  no  hope  of  succeeding  by  it  than 
to  be  assured  of  succeeding  without  it." 

Of  how  many  are  the  energies  paralyzed  by  the  single 
item  of  freight  discriminations  ?  How  great  a  load  is  le- 
gitimate enterprise  bearing  on  this  account  ?  Is  it  not 
true  that  any  rational  hope  of  success  in  more  than  one 
leading  line  of  industry  is  thus  rendered  impossible  for 
those  not  in  rings? 

Christianity  teaches  us  that  we  arc  all  brothers,  and  the 
recognition  of  this  truth  is  forced  upon  us  in  the  State. 
It  was  never  intended  that  each  one  should  live  in  and  for 
himself,  and  all  attempts  to  organize  society  on  this  basis 
will  fail  disastrously,  while  true  success  will  accompany  us 
in  proportion  as  wo  recognize  the  brotherhood  of  man  in 
public  and  in  private  relations. 

Another  reflection  which  must  not  be  omitted  is  this: 
Glittering  generalities  will  never  solve  any  social  problem, 
and  this  is  a  truth  which  the  Church  in  particular  needs  to 


CO-OPERATION    IN    LITERATURE    AND    THE    STATE.        15 

bear  in  mind.  It  is  all  very  well  to  say,  be  good,  love  your 
neighbor,  obey  your  God,  and  these  things  must  be  repeat- 
ed often,  but  they  must  also  become  incorporated  in  our 
institutions,  and  must  become  an  animating  force  in  the 
•State.  Love  and  goodness  must  indeed  often  be  backed 
by  a  strong  force,  the  force  of  the  State.  The  luajcsty 
of  the  law  and  the  sword  of  the  sovereign  cannot  be 
allowed  to  become  empty  names.  Force  and  authority 
have  their  own  proper  sphere.  Take  compulsory  educa- 
tion. The  compulsion  is  a  power  which  gradually  lifts 
people  above  its  own  ethical  plain.  It  is  felt  only  by 
those  who  live  below  that  level.  We  often  hear  it  said, 
Yes,  it  is  true  that  the  State,  this  great  compulsory  co-oper- 
ative society,  ought  to  do  this  thing  and  that  other  thing 
which  you  mention,  but  we  cannot  trust  the  State.  It  is  too 
corrupt.  This  is  precisely  the  same  argument  which  has 
been  used  against  the  Church.  It,  too,  has  become  corrupt, 
and  a  few  hundred  years  ago  there  was  more  room  for  an 
argument  in  favor  of  the  suppression  of  the  Church  than 
now  for  the  abolition  of  the  State.  But  the  great  men  in 
the  Church,  those  alone  to  whom  we  owe  a  debt  of  grati- 
tude, have  not  said  "abolition  of  the  Church,"  but  "reform 
of  the  Church ;"  and  reform  has  come  by  persistent  effort, 
reform  is  still  progressing,  and  will  continue  to  progress, 
and  we  may  thank  God  every  day  we  live  for  his  Church. 
So  must  it  be  with  our  State.  We  want  a  great  reforma- 
tion in  our  State  life,  and  here  is  a  vast  field  for  the  most 
earnest  activity  of  our  clergy.  The  ethical  duties  and  the 
holy  privileges  of  a  citizen  of  a  republic  must  be  enforced 
in  season  and  out  of  season.  This  is  a  crying  moral  and 
economic  need  of  the  hour.  Men  must  be  taught  that  it 
is  a  grand  thing  to  serve  God  in  the  State  which  he  in  his 
beneficent  wisdom  instituted,  and  that  to  betray  a  trust  in 


1(5  Tllli    LAHOH    IMIOBLEM. 

the  divine  State  is  as  heinous  an  offence  as  to  be  false  to 
duty  in  the  divine  Churcli. 

Is  not  one  reason  for  tlie  corrupt  condition  of  our  pres- 
ent State  to  be  found  in  the  undue  restriction  of  its  func- 
tions? It  lias  been  denied  its  proper  functions,  and  under 
the  inaterialistic  drift  of  mercantilism  which  has  over- 
whelmed us,  our  strongest  men  have  preferred  the  services' 
of  private  individuals  and  corporations  to  the  service  of 
the  people.  Is  it  not  further  true  that  our  State,  unable  to 
cope  with  great  corporations  which  should  never  have  ex- 
isted— for  all  the  people  should  be  stronger  than  any  pri- 
vate combination — has  been  too  weak  to  be  good  ?  Or  is 
it  strange  that  men  who  from  youth  up  have  been  taught 
to  take  a  low  view  of  the  State — perhaps  even  have  been 
told  that  the  State  is  a  necessary  evil,  instead  of  what  is 
true,  a  necessary  good — is  it  strange  that  those  who  their 
life  long  have  listened  to  the  expression  of  such  low,  de- 
graded views  of  the  State,  should,  under  pressure  of  temp- 
tation, drift  into  smuggling,  bribery,  defalcation,  and  all 
kinds  of  public  corruption  ?  No,  it  cannot  surprise  the 
thinking  man. 

Co-operation  is  a  good  thing  ;  arbitration  is  a  good  thing ; 
profit  sharing  is  a  good  thing ;  but  let  us  remember  amid 
all  this  discussion  that  every  hope  of  a  permanent  reform 
in  industrial  and  social  life  must  be  illusory  unless  it  has 
a  firm  foundation  in  a  lasting  State  reformation. 


CHAPTER  II. 

BY 

JAMES  A.  WATERWORTH. 


THE  CONFLICT  HISTORICALLY  CONSIDERED. 

The  laborer  and  the  capitalist  throughout  the  civilized 
world  stand  face  to  face  this  day  in  grim  antagonism. 
The  most  peaceful  relation  anywhere  existing  between 
them  is  one  of  armed  truce,  which  may  be  broken  at  a  mo- 
ment's notice.  The  conflict  is  an  old  one,  and  has  fur- 
nished much  material  for  the  orator  and  the  essayist,  and 
deserves  special  attention  at  this  time  only  because  of  the 
recent  organization  of  one  of  the  parties,  and  of  the  swift- 
ly changing  relations  between  them  consequent  on  that 
organization.  For  centuries,  with  but  few  intervals,  the 
caj>italist  won  the  battles  and  divided  the  spoils.  For  cen- 
turies the  laborer  toiled,  always  in  poverty,  and  sometimes 
in  chains.  On  the  side  of  the  capitalist  were  education,  or- 
ganization, and  law.  The  laborer  fought  singly,  was  un- 
educated, and  under  the  ban  of  the  law.  The  situation 
lias  changed  ;  and  to-day  the  laborer,  unshacliled,  fairly  ed- 
ucated, earning  an  independence,  and  a  member  of  power- 
ful organizations,  maintains  the  conflict  on  almost  equal 
terms.  The  only  disadvantage  under  which  he  fights  is 
the  difficulty  of  maintaining  organization  in  so  vast  and 
mixed  a  multitude.  That  so  thorough  an  organization  has 
been  effected  and  is  maintained  is  one  of  the  signs  of  the 
times.     These  changed  relations  between  parties  forming 


18  THE    LA130U    I'KOllLEM. 

the  effective  strength  of  the  body  politic  amount  to  revo- 
lution. "We  arc  therefore  concerned  to  watch  the  progress 
of  the  conflict  with  jealous  scrutiny. 

Revolutions,  however  wholesome,  are  dangerous,  and  re- 
quire the  cool  head  and  the  honest  human  heart  to  direct 
them.  I  Of  these  the  native  race  have  given  ample  proof  in 
times  more  trying  than  the  present  arc  likely  to  be  ;  and  if 
they  direct  the  movements,  we  may  look  on  or  act  our  part 
with  interest  unmixed  with  fear.  \  ^Yhat  the  issue  shall  be 
depends  on  the  ability  and  endurance  of  the  parties,  but 
above  all,  and  finally,  on  the  justness  of  the  demands  and 
the  reasonableness  of  the  methods.  This  much  may  be 
said,  however,  that  Labor  is  fighting  along  a  line  of  devel- 
opment to  some  points  that  will  probably  be  reached;  and 
Capital  is  fighting  on  a  line  of  conservation  to  hold  points 
son^e  of  which  will  have  fo  be  given  up. 

The  element  in  this  struggle  which  excites  grave  appre- 
hensions is  the  intense  bitterness  and  animosity  which  oc- 
casionally flash  out  in  acts  of  violence,  and  which  charac- 
terize the  literature  and  oratory  of  the  conflict.  They 
give  a  passing  glimpse  into  a  volcano  of  hate,  smoulder- 
ing beneath  the  crust  of  deference  to  law,  which  may  at 
any  moment  break  forth  into  acts  of  fiery  violence.  Why 
the  differences  between  the  laborer  and  the  capitalist,  or 
between  employer  and  employed,  should  develop  such  heat 
is  not  apparent  from  the  nature  of  the  grievances  usually 
alleged  by  either  party.  The  grievances  openly  proclaimed 
as  the  causes  of  hostility  arc  frequently  childish,  unreason- 
able, and  unworthy  of  serious  attention.  In  the  majority 
of  cases  they  centre  round  some  worthless  fellow  or  some 
fancied  wrong,  and  create  irritation  and  excitement  with- 
out touching  any  of  the  great  issues  between  the  capitalist 
and  the  laborer.  There  is  in  fact  no  natural  antagonism 
between  Capital  and  Labor  to  account  for  this  bitterness. 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED.  19 

On  the  contrary,  they  are  natural  allies;  nay,  more,  they 
are  members  of  the  same  body,  the  connection  between 
them  is  a  vital  one,  and  not  to  be  severed  without  the  de- 
struction of  the  social  frame.  A  conflict  between  them 
would  be  as  unnatural  and  suicidal  as  a  conflict  between 
the  members  and  the  body.  Economic  and  social  science 
refuses  to  contemplate  such  a  possibility,  but  invariably 
postulates  their  harmonious  and  sympathetic  working. 
Capital  cannot  exist  without  Labor,  nor  Labor  live  without 
Capita],  nor  society  without  both.  Why,  then,  this  intol- 
erable bitterness  between  the  suppliers  of  capital  and  the 
suppliers  of  labor  ? 

It  may  be  said  that  the  equitable  division  of  the  joint 
product  of  the  labor  of  any  two  parties  contributing  dif- 
ferent elements  to  the  production  affords  matter  for  endless 
differences,  according  to  the  judgments,  temperaments,  and 
consciences  of  the  parties.  But  all  this  is  matter  for  ad- 
justment by  arbitration  or  by  the  courts  of  law  construing 
the  agreements  under  which  the  parties  have  jointly  work- 
ed. These  modes  of  settlement  arc  in  constant  use  by 
men  in  all  classes  of  business,  and  the  idea  of  a  settlement 
of  such  differences  by  violent  means  would  be  consider- 
ed ridiculous.  Why  are  violence  and  bitterness  necessary 
accompaniments  only  of  disputes  between  employer  and 
employed  ? 

This  is  a  question  on  which  the  present  is  silent,  or  at 
most  points  o-nly  to  the  unreasoning  and  unreasonable  pas- 
sions of  men.  But  this  is  an  age  in  which,  less  than  in 
any  other,  such  an  answer  would  suffice.  Great  masses  of 
freemen  are  not  usually  moved  by  unreasonable  and  con- 
scienceless passion  to  any  organized  and  sustained  course 
of  conduct.  This  is  an  ago  and  a  country  in  which,  more 
than  in  any  other,  an  enlightetied  judgment  and  a  sincere 
respect  for  lawful  ami  (jnlcrly  procedure  characterize  tli" 


20  TUB   LABOU  FUOOLEM. 

ordinary  movements  of  masses  of  the  people  We  must 
look  farther  for  the  causes  of  this  bitterness.  It  is  pro- 
posed in  this  paper  to  appeal  to  History,  and  inquire  of 
the  by-gone  centuries  what  they  have  to  say  for  the  en- 
lightenment of  the  men  of  the  nineteenth  century  on  this, 
the  question  of  the  day.* 

THE    LABORER    A    SERF. 

When  we  first  meet  with  the  laborer  in  history  ho  is  a 
serf.  The  ownership  of  land  in  the  country,  and  of  house 
and  ground  in  the  incorporated  town,  was  the  badge  of 
freedom  and  the  basis  of  all  political  rights.  Every  land- 
less man  must  have  a  lord,  entitled  to  his  services  and  re- 
sponsible for  his  conduct.  He  cannot  leave  his  lord's  de- 
mesne without  a  written  permit,  or  he  will  be  pursued  by 
the  sheriflE  and  brought  back.  He  cannot  offer  his  labor 
in  the  highest,  nor  in  any  market — it  is  his  lord's.  His 
son  cannot  go  into  the  neighboring  town  to  leani  a  trade — 
his  services  are  the  lord's.     His  daughter  cannot  marry  off 

*  This  paper  confines  the  examination  to  the  relations  between 
the  English  capitalist  and  the  English  laborer,  because  these  are  the 
only  parties  to  the  question  concerning  whose  relations  we  have  con- 
tinuous testimony  over  long  periods.  The  authority  for  prices  and 
wages  is  Mr.  J.  E,  Thorold  Rogers,  whose  "  History  of  Agriculture 
and  Prices"  is  the  one  authority  for  such  facts  prior  to  1582.  For 
the  laborer's  condition,  socially  and  politically,  during  the  same  pei'iod, 
Stubbs's  "ConstituLional  History"  is  an  authority.  For  later  facts 
the  works  of  Cunningham,  Howell,  Brassej,  Giffen,  and  Mulhall  have 
been  consulted. 

The  unit  adopted  for  comparing  the  laborer's  condition  nt  differ- 
ent periods  is  the  price  of  one  bushel  of  Avheat,  half  a  busliel  of  malt, 
and  twenty  pounds  of  beef.  Wheaten  flour,  bread,  ale,  and  beef 
were  almost  the  sole  articles  of  the  laborer's  food  down  to  this  centu- 
ry, and  the  quantity  given  above  would  go  near  feeding  a  family  of 
four  persons  for  two  weeks.  When  rent  and  fuel  become  items  of 
the  laborer's  expenses  they  arc  added. 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED.  21 

the  estate — her  lord  having  vested  rights  in  her  offspring. 
It  is  true,  the  serf — unless  of  the  lowest  class  of  thralls — 
cannot  be  sold ;  he  is  ascrijyticius  glehw — fettered  to  the 
Soil.  If  the  land  went  to  a  new  owner,  the  serf  followed 
it  to  the  new  lord.  He  was  not  permitted  to  enroll  him- 
self in  the  national  militia;  he  could  not  sue  in  the  courts; 
he  had  no  rights  as  against  his  lord,  nor  against  any  free- 
man except  through  his  lord.  On  the  other  hand,  the  lord 
was  bound  to  maintain  his  serf's  rights  against  every  one 
else.  There  were  countless  bitter  and  oppressive  limita- 
tions hedging  in  his  liberty,  and  giving  him  notice  in  al- 
most every  act  of  his  life  that,  if  not  a  slave,  he  was  not 
free.  His  physical  condition  was,  nevertheless,  very  much 
better  than  that  of  his  free  but  pauper  descendant  of  four 
centuries  later.  He  had  a  cottage  and  garden  at  a  nominal 
rent;  when  his  lord  claimed  his  services,  he  was  paid  a 
penny  a  day  and  his  food ;  when  not  working  in  his  lord's 
demesne,  he  was  free  to  cultivate  his  own  little  patch  of 
ground ;  he  liad  rights  of  wood  from  the  forest  for  fuel, 
and  of  pasture  on  the  commons  for  a  certain  number  of 
cattle  and  hogs — rights  not  by  title-deed  but  by  immemo- 
rial custom,  the  loss  of  which  by  his  descendant,  the  mod- 
ern laborer,  is  one  element  of  his  decayed  condition.  Mr. 
Rogers  estimates  his  possible  income  from  all  sources  at 
this  time  (a.d.  1260-1350)  at  about  £4  ($20),  his  neces- 
sary expenditures  at  about  £3  ($15).  The  estimate  of  ex- 
penditures includes  a  very  liberal  supply  of  food  for  a 
family  of  five  persons — so  liberal,  in  fact,  that  at  no  time 
since  the  year  1550  would  the  laborer's  whole  income  be 
sufficient  to  pay  for  it. 

The  serf  thus  appears  to  have  been  at  least  well  fed,  ex- 
cept in  years  of  famine,  which  were  frequent,  owing  to  the 
lack  of  means  for  distributing  surplus  products.  His  ex- 
penses otiier  than  for  food  were  very  small.     He  is  fre- 


22  THE    LABOR    PRODLEM. 

quently  a  man  of  some  little  means.     When  he  is  able  to 
buy  a  piece  of  land  he  can  free  himself. 

The  mechanic  in  the  rural  districts  was  on  the  same  foot- 
ing as  the  serf  in  all  respects,  his  pay  when  workino^  being 
higher  —  twopence  to  threepence  per  day.  He  had  the 
same  rights  of  forest  and  pasture,  and  was  boimd  to  the 
estate  as  closely  as  the  laborer.  In  incorporated  towns 
the  mechanic  was  nominally  free,  but  he  was  bound  to  a 
master  in  the  same  way  that  the  laborer  was  bound  to  his 
lord,  lie  had  no  political  rights  whatever  until  he  was 
admitted  into  the  freedom  of  his  trade  guild,  which  re- 
quired ownership  of  j)ropcrty.  When  the  mechanic  was 
able  to  own  his  house  and  lot,  he  was  eligible  for  the  full 
franchise  of  the  corporation.  He  could  then  set  up  as  a 
master,  and  his  apprentices  and  journeymen  were  bound 
to  him  as  he  had  been  to  his  master.  Thus  an  avenue  out 
of  thraldom  stood  open  to  industry  and  thrift.  This  was 
very  far  from  being  the  worst  period  in  the  history  of  labor. 
No  such  unbridgable  gulf  separated  the  land-owner's  state 
from  the  serf's  humble  condition  as  that  which  now  sepa- 
rates the  rich  man's  luxury  from  the  poor  man's  squalor. 
Both  were  indifferently  lodged,  both  lived  in  a  sort  of  rude 
plenty,  neither  enjoyed  many  luxuries.  There  was  no  such 
infinite  disparity  between  the  matter  and  the  methods  of 
their  daily  lives  as  in  these  days.  The  city  artisan  lodged 
in  his  master's  house,  the  serf  lived  under  the  shadow  of 
the  castle.  An  extensive  system  of  relief  was  maintained 
by  the  Church  and  by  the  guild,  and  immense  sums  were 
expended  by  the  great  in  benefactions  to  the  poor.  There 
was  some  human  bond  between  employer  and  employed 
other  than  wages.  And  yet  the  laborer  and  artisan  fretted 
under  the  conditions  of  their  life.  The  laborer  was  per- 
petually running  off  to  the  neighboring  town,  or  to  anoth- 
er county ;  was  hunted  and  brought  back.     The  town  arti- 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDKRED,  23 

san  was  a  chronic  disturber  of  the  peace.  The  fact  was 
that  by  law  and  custom  they  were  men  of  an  inferior  caste, 
and  the  sti2;ma  was  intolerable,  and  they  would  not  submit 
to  it.  It  is  unfortunate  that  Labor  has  come  down  through 
the  ages  with  this  unnatural  brand  upon  it.  Every  law  re- 
lating to  the  laborer  passed  between  1350  and  1824  deals 
with  him  as  with  an  inferior  being.  This  is  the  root  of 
all  the  injustice  done  to  the  workman  in  past  ages.  The 
legislator  never  conceived  the  idea  that  he  was  legislating 
for  a  freeman  with  equal  rights,  or  indeed  with  any  rights 
at  all.  The  employer  simply  knew  that  he  who  had  been 
his  serf  was  now  his  servant.  The  workman  conquered 
his  freedom  but  never  conquered  caste.  He  continued  to 
be  a  servant.  The  stigma  passed  from  the  man  to  his  so- 
cial condition,  and  would  not  be  washed  out.  It  remains 
to  this  day.  It  is  the  largest  element  of  bitterness  in  the 
contest  at  this  moment. 

There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  capitalist  of  the 
period  (the  land-owner)  was  actuated  by  any  feeling  of  hos- 
tility to  the  laborer  or  by  any  desire  to  oppress  him.  Ho 
seems  to  have  treated  his  serf  with  indulgence.  lie  acted 
according  to  the  best  lights  of  the  times,  and  to  protect  his 
property.  Tlie  serf  was  his  property,  and  he  did  not  want 
to  lose  him.  The  question  of  wages  was  a  secondary  con- 
sideration, a  pretext  for  the  quarrel,  as  it  is  to-day  in  nine 
cases  out  of  ten.  The  revolt  was  against  the  condition. 
The  man  rebelled  against  the  stigma  of  legal  inferiority. 

CONFLICT. 

The  serf's  condition  from  its  very  nature  could  not  be  a 
permanent  one ;  he  must  either  win  nearer  freedom  or  be 
thrust  down  to  slavery.  The  struggle  is  unrecorded  in  our 
popular  liistories — in  fact,  the  serf  is  hardly  mentioned  as 
existing,  save  wlien   in  open   insurrection — but  it  was  un- 


24  Tllli    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

ceasing,  sleepless,  untiring.  A  national  calamity  turned  tho 
scale  in  favor  of  freedom.  In  1349  the  plague  swept  over 
England,  One-third  of  the  people  died.  Labor  was  not 
to  be  had.  The  harvest  lay  rotting  in  the  fields.  The 
fields  lay  unplougliod.  Laborers  demanded  three  and  four 
times  the  customary  wages,  and  refused  to  work  till  their 
terms  were  agreed  to.  They  were  entitled  to  high  wages 
by  all  the  laws  governing  wages,  but  determined  efforts 
were  made  to  prevent  their  receiving  them.  Payment  of 
any  such  wages  meant  ruin  to  the  land-owners.  The  cele- 
brated "  Statute  of  Laborers  "  was  passed,  and  this  stat- 
ute may  be  said  to  mark  the  beginning  of  the  "  Conflict." 
Here  begins  the  estrangement  between  the  employer  and 
employed  of  our  race.  It  was  unknown  before.  This  act 
provided  that  "  every  man  and  woman  able  in  body  and 
within  the  age  of  threescore,  not  living  by  merchandise, 
nor  exercising  any  craft,  not  having  land  about  whose  till- 
age he  may  employ  himself,  nor  having  of  his  own  whereof 
to  live,  shall  be  bound  to  serve  at  the  wages  customary  in 
the  year  before  the  plague."  If  he  refused  he  was  to  be  im- 
prisoned till  he  ffave  bond  to  (jo  to  work.  No  employer 
was  to  pay  him  more,  on  pain  of  forfeiting  double,  and  no 
workman  was  to  I'eceive  more,  on  pain  of  imprisonment. 
Two  years  later  another  statute  was  passed,  extending  the 
same  provisions  to  every  trade  and  handicraft.  Hence- 
forth mechanic  and  laborer  are  alike  subjected  to  continu- 
ous restrictive  legislation.  The  law  of  supply  and  demand 
was  stronger,  however,  than  the  statute.  The  laborer  ex- 
acted his  price,  or  as  much  of  it  as  could  be  extracted  from 
the  product,  but  he  knew  that  he  could  be  imprisoned  for 
exacting  it.  He  felt  that  he  was  under  the  ban  of  the  law, 
and  he  grew  desperate.  A  feeling  of  opposition  to  the  es- 
tablished order  spread  over  the  kingdom.  Laborers  roamed 
over  the  country  in  companies  and  committed  great  ex- 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED.  25 

cesses.  They  refused  to  work,  except  under  the  most  ex- 
travagant conditions.  In  these  matters  they  were  not  a  whit 
more  unreasonable  than  the  priests,  the  lawyers,  the  doc- 
tors, and  others  who  gave  their  services  for  pay.  The  laws 
passed  during  this  period  prove  the  incessant  conflict  that 
was  maintained  between  employer  and  employed.  In  1351 
a  law  was  passed  providing  that  wages  paid  to  laborers  in 
excess  of  the  lawful  amount  shall  be  recoverable  at  law. 
In  1368  the  same  statute  was  re-enacted.  In  1377  a  stat- 
ute was  passed  to  prevent "  villeins  constraining  their  mas- 
ters." In  1378,  "that  agricultural  laborers  should  not  be 
allowed  to  be  received  into  towns."  During  all  this  time 
a  combination  was  being  effected,  inexplicable  in  its  thor- 
oughness, considering  the  imperfect  means  of  communica- 
tion at  the  time,  by  means  which  are  unknown  even  to  this 
day,  but  complete  beyond  any  that  has  been  effected  since. 
On  a  signal  the  whole  labor  of  the  country  rose  in  insur- 
rection, and  in  1381  the  Peasants'  war  began. 

The  insurgents  carried  all  before  them  for  a  few  days,  and 
in  the  flush  of  victory,  with  the  city  of  London  in  their 
hands,  they  presented  their  demands  to  the  king.  They 
were  as  follows : 

"Wo  will  that  you  make  us  free,  our  heirs  and  our  lands, 
and  that  we  be  no  more  bond,  nor  so  reputed."  A  natural 
aspiration !  Had  they  only  been  my  lords  and  gentlemen 
how  History  would  have  glorified  the  transaction  !  The 
flame  of  insurrection  was  quenched  in  blood,  but  the  cause 
was  won.  While  the  extravagant  demands  of  the  serfs 
were  set  aside,  wages  remained  permanently  forty  to  sixty 
per  cent,  higher  than  they  were  before  the  plague,  in  spite 
of  the  law,  and  a  death-blow  was  given  to  serfage. 

The  king  had  promised  the  serfs  their  freedom,  but  Par- 
liament when  it  met  peremptorily  refused  to  ratify  the 
promise.     They  voted  that  "they  would  rather  perish  all 


26  THE    LABOR    PKOULEM. 

together  in  one  day."  But  it  was  soon  fonnd  tliat  they 
could  no  longer  cultivate  their  estates  at  a  profit,  and  pay 
the  wages  now  demanded  by  the  serfs.  For  some  time  the 
attempt  was  made,  but  the  bailitifs'  accounts  show  how  un- 
profitable it  was.  The  laborer  refused  to  work  for  the 
wages  allowed  by  law ;  the  land-owner  dare  not  and  could 
not  sell  at  more  than  the  legal  price  of  produce,  that  be- 
ing regulated  by  law  also.  For  some  time  the  strife  be- 
tween them  continued,  and  it  must  have  been  bitter,  for 
we  find  coercive  statutes  constantly  passed.  In  1388  a  law 
was  passed  forbidding  the  laborer  to  leave  his  place  of  serv- 
ice or  to  move  about  the  country  without  a  passport.  In 
1391  a  petition  was  presented  praying  Parliament  to  pass 
a  law  forbidding  the  children  of  the  base  born-churls  to 
attend  the  schools.  Finally  it  became  evident  that  a  lon- 
ger continuance  of  this  strife  would  end  in  the  common 
ruin  of  lord  and  serf.  The  great  land-owners  throughout 
the  kingdom  abandoned  the  attempt  to  cultivate  their  own 
estates  with  serf  labor;  they  broke  them  up  into  farms, 
and  let  them  to  the  most  active  and  thrifty  of  their  serfs, 
and  to  the  small  farmers  of  the  neighborhood,  even  stock- 
ing the  farms  for  the  new  tenants.  The  personal  services 
of  serfdom  were  commuted  for  a  fixed  Rent,  to  be  paid  in 
money  for  the  use  of  the  land.  The  essence  of  serfdom 
being  personal  service,  this  voluntary  commutation  silently 
worked  manumission.  The  serfs  who,  by  reason  of  inca- 
pacity or  unthrift,  failed  to  obtain  an  allotment  of  land, 
sunk  at  once  into  the  hired  laborers  of  the  new  farmers. 
For  some  time  the  old  services  were  exacted  of  these  un- 
fortunates by  their  new  masters,  but  by  degrees  these  were 
commuted  into  fixed  Wages,  and  the  farmer's  serf  became 
the  modern  agricultural  laborer. 

Cases  of  serfdom  meet  us  as  late  as  the  Reformation,  but 
ihey  are  very  rare ;  within  fifty  years  after  the  Peasants' 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED.  27 

war  serfdom  was  practically  extinguished.  The  drain  on 
the  sons  of  the  yeomanry  during  the  civil  wars  of  the  cen- 
tury which  followed  gave  the  laborer  his  opportunity. 
The  demand  for  labor  was  so  great  that  the  statutes  regu- 
lating wages,  though  re-enacted  over  and  over  again,  were 
disregarded.  Labor  was  practically  free.  A  better  under- 
standing seems  to  have  been  reached  between  capitalist 
and  laborer,  for  in  1406  it  was  ordered  by  Parliament 
"  that  every  man  or  woman  of  whatsoever  estate  or  con- 
dition shall  be  free  to  set  their  son  or  daughter  to  talcc 
learning  at  any  school  that  pleaseth  them  within  the 
realm.'' 

THE   GOOD    OLD   TIMES. 

The  period  which  follows  is  spoken  of  as  the  Golden  Age 
of  English  Labor.  The  workman's  wages  were  more  than 
sufficient  to  furnish  a  comfortable  support  for  himself  and 
his  family;  he  had  still  his  cottage  and  garden,  his  rights 
of  wood  and  pasture;  he  was  well  fed,  and  was  housed 
as  well  as  the  times  required  the  laborer  to  be ;  his  day's 
work  was  eight  hours.  Harvests  during  most  of  this  long- 
period  were  abundant,  and  provisions  very  cheap.  When 
sickness,  old  age,  or  poverty  overtook  him  he  found  in  his 
parish  church  or  the  neighboring  monastery  a  generous 
charity;  while  the  mechanic  had  his  guild,  which  supported 
him  when  sick,  buried  him  when  dead,  and  contributed  to 
the  maintenance  of  his  widow  and  family.  During  the 
most  turbulent  century  of  English  history  he  pursued  his 
daily  avocations  unnoticed  and  unmolested.  Ho  was  of 
too  low  degree  to  be  permitted  to  bear  arras.  In  the  glo- 
ries of  Poitiers  and  Agincourt  he  had  no  share,  and  lie 
escaped  the  butcheries  of  Towton  and  Tewkesbury.  The 
battles  of  the  White  Rose  and  Red,  of  King  versus  Noble, 
were  fought  out  around  him  in  many  a  historic  field,  but 
lie  cared  nothing  for  them,  and  they  did  not  disturb  him. 


28  THE    LADOH   PROBLEM. 

Nothiiii;  in  the  English  character  struck  the  Frenchman 
Coitiines  so  much  as  the  fact  that  in  a  civil  war  so  long 
protracted,  which  changed  the  Constitution  and  the  Dy- 
nasty, destroyed  Feudalism,  and  swept  away  the  old  No- 
bility, "  no  buildings  arc  destroyed  or  demolished  by  war, 
and  the  mischief  of  it  falls  only  on  those  who  make  the 
war."  And  so  the  laborer  stayed  at  home  at  his  work,  too 
base  for  honor  and  too  humble  for  injury.  Sometimes, 
perhaps,  he  would  climb  the  neighboring  hill  to  look  at 
the  fight,  and  after  it  was  over  he  doubtless  improved  the 
occasion  by  carrying  off  whatever  valuables  he  could  pick 
up  on  the  place  of  carnage.  Many  a  crested  jewel,  many 
a  massy  chain  and  embroidered  scarf  thus  found  its  way 
into  the  laborer's  cot,  to  furnish  material  in  later  time  for 
the  winter's  tale  and  for  the  thrilling  romance.  But  for 
the  issues  of  the  contest  on  which  history  dotes  he  cared 
nothing.  The  New  Learning  and  the  Reformation  swept 
over  the  land  and  he  heeded  it  not;  the  hornbook  was  his 
epitome  of  learning  and  religious  belief,  and  he  cared  little 
whether  prayers  were  said  in  Latin  or  English.  He  doubt- 
less listened  with  a  stolid  surprise  while  the  priest  belaud- 
ed the  king  and  reviled  the  Pope.  It  was  a  new  thing,  and 
entirely  too  high  for  his  understanding;  but  so  long  as 
he  could  say  his  prayers  in  the  old  parish  church  around 
which  the  bones  of  his  forefathers  for  uncounted  genera- 
tions lay  buried,  it  was  little  he  cared  whether  Henry  or 
Clement  were  Pope.  He  simply  knew  that  he  had  enough 
to  eat  and  a  place — filth}',  it  is  true,  but  his  own — in  which 
to  sleep,  and  a  fire  to  keep  out  the  cold,  and  that  work  was 
hard,  and  that,  glory  be  to  God,  the  world  was  not  a  bad 
place  to  live  in. 

To  this  age  of  plenty  the  worn  and  starved  laborer  of 
later  periods  looked  wistfully  back,  and  stories  of  the 
time  when  a  man  might  earn  a  year's  provisions  for  his 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDEKED.  29 

family  in  twenty  ^veeks  lingered  around  the  cottager's 
hearth  for  generations,  and  glorified  the  period  as  tlio 
*'  good  old  times."  It  was  from  survivors  of  this  period 
that  Shakespeare  drew  his  faithful  Adam  in  "  As  You  Like 
It,"  his  grave  -  diggers  in  "  Hamlet,"  and  many  another 
sketch  of  humble  but  cheerful  and  honest  manhood. 

The  table  (p.  39)  shows  that  the  artisan  and  laborer 
could  easily  earn  a  comfortable  living  during  the  whole 
of  this  period. 

THE  LABORER  FREE,  BUT  A  PAUPER. 

By  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  the  Golden 
Age  of  English  Labor  had  come  to  an  end.  The  workman 
for  a  century  and  a  half  had  lived  in  plenty.  He  was  so 
comfortable  that  laws  were  passed  to  restrain  his  family's 
extravagance  in  dress.  The  only  bitterness  in  his  lot  was 
the  servile  stain  on  his  condition,  carried  down  from  the 
days  of  serfage.  He  had  no  political  rights,  and  was  not 
destined  to  have  for  centuries.  For  this  he  probably  did 
not  care.  But  he  was  now  to  enter  on  a  period  of  misery 
and  degradation,  of  which  even  at  this  interval  of  time  it 
is  difficult  to  write  with  calmness.  In  this  period  we  shall 
discover  another  element  of  the  bittei'ness  of  the  struggle 
now  going  on  in  the  oppression  which,  under  various  forms 
of  law,  and  during  a  long  period,  ground  the  laborer  into 
the  dust  in  the  mistaken  attempt  to  protect  the  capitalist. 
Generation  after  generation  was  offered  up  on  the  altar  of 
England's  Molochs — the  landed  and  manufacturing  inter- 
ests. Like  most  outrages  perpetrated  by  man  on  man,  it 
had  its  origin  in  ignorance  rather  than  in  malevolence. 

This  course  of  legislation,  which  in  its  enactments  vio- 
lated what  are  now  known  to  be  the  true  principles  of 
Economical  Science,  was  continued  during  two  centuries 
and  a  half,  and  was  fuiallv  abandoned  in  1824. 


30  TUK    LAUOK    I'HOULEM. 

It  is  not  to  bo  supposed  tlmt  a  class  wlio  liad  emanci- 
pated tlicnisclvcs  after  such  a  bitter  struggle,  who  had  over- 
ridden all  laws  fixing  their  wages  during  a  period  of  two 
hundred  years,  and  who  had  grown  independent  during  a 
century  and  a  half  of  prosperity,  would  tamely  surrender 
all  that  they  had  gained,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteentli 
century  yield  themselves  to  pauperism.  Nor  could  their 
submissioi)  have  been  accomplished  by  any  law  aimed  di- 
rectly at  that  purpose.  The  causes  which  paved  the  way 
to  this  degradation  were  various,  and  some  of  them  of  long 
continuance.  The  unprofitableness  of  farming  with  the 
ordinary  labor  at  the  prices  demanded  had  early  in  the 
struggle  drawn  many  of  the  land-owners  into  sheep-raising. 
Immense  tracts  of  land  were  withdrawn  from  cultivation 
and  thrown  into  pasture.  Flocks  of  10,000  and  20,000 
sheep  were  common.  Tlie  numerous  laborers  required  for 
agricultural  pursuits  were  replaced  by  a  few  shepherds. 
At  the  same  time,  a  greed  for  land  became  epidemic.  Lord 
and  farmer  vied  with  each  other  in  appropriating,  on  one 
pretext  or  another,  tlie  common  fields.  Enclosures  of  com- 
mons and  waste  lands,  the  customary  fields  of  the  laboring 
poor,  were  made  on  a  great  scale,  and  this  source  of  supply 
for  the  laborer  was  much  circumscribed.  The  position  of 
the  workman  was  further  weakened  by  the  wholesale  con- 
fiscations of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  We  must  never 
forget  that  the  workman  was  the  chief  sufferer  by  the  con- 
fiscation of  the  properties  of  the  monasteries  and  guilds. 
Ilis  provision  for  sickness,  old  age,  and  death  was  swept 
away.  The  extent  of  the  calamity  may  be  estimated  from 
the  fact  that  property  amounting  to  $250,000,000  of  our 
money  was  thus  withdrawn  from  charitable  purposes  and 
divided  up  among  the  greedy  horde  of  courtiers  who  sur- 
rounded the  king;  but  the  infamous  act  which  destroyed 
resistance  to  the  enforcement  of  the  statutory  wa^es  was 


THE    CONFLICT    IIISTOKICALLY    CONSIDERED.  31 

the  debasement  of  the  coinage,  begun  under  Ilcnry  VIII. 
and  continued  under  the  Protectorate.  Debasing  the  cur- 
rency is  the  last  and  gravest  political  crime  a  government 
can  commit  against  its  people.  It  is  especial!}'  a  crime 
against  the  laborer,  whose  margin  of  income  over  expend- 
iture is  of  the  smallest. 

Up  to  this  time  the  penny  in  which  his  wages  were  paid 
contained  11.1  grains  of  pure  silver.  In  1543  Henry  de- 
based it  to  8.3  grains;  in  1545  to  5  grains;  in  1546  to 
3.3  grains;  and  under  Somerset's  protectorate  it  was  fur- 
ther debased  in  1551  to  1.6  grains!  In  those  days  of 
slow  and  imperfect  communication  it  was  some  time  before 
the  fraud  began  to  operate  on  prices,  and  the  laborer  was 
the  last  to  perceive  how  he  was  being  robbed.  Slowly  but 
surely,  however,  the  workman  found  that  his  wages  were 
losing  their  purchasing  power.  One  can  imagine  the  ter- 
ror of  the  ignorant  laborer  as  he  saw  the  value  of  his 
money  disappearing,  till  at  last  the  vile  trash  which  repre- 
sented his  week's  wages  would  not  purchase  two  days' 
provisions.  This  was  an  enemy  he  could  not  fight.  The 
lately  prosperous  and  independent  workman  found  himself 
a  beggar,  and  .his  children  starving.  Wherever  he  turned 
for  relief  he  met  only  disappointment.  The  desolate  halls 
of  the  monastery  mocked  his  misery.  Its  hospitable  ambry 
was  empty,  its  hearth-stone  cold.  In  liis  cottage,  lately  so 
joyous,  he  saw  only  starvation  and  despair.  Men  who  had 
liitherto  been  industrious  and  honest  now  roamed  the  coun- 
try either  as  open  robbers  or  as  "  sturdy  beggars." 

Savage  laws  were  enacted  to  repress  these  crimes.  By 
the  first  Edward  VI.  it  was  enacted  that  the  landless  and 
destitute  poor  be  reduced  to  slavery,  branded,  and  made 
to  work  in  chains!  An  act  was  passed  prohibiting  "all 
confederacies,  and  promises  of  workmen  concerning  tlicir 
work  or  wages,  or  the  hours  of  the  day  when  they  should 


32  THE    LAUOR    rUOULEM. 

work."  Any  violation  of  this  statute  was  to  be  punislicd : 
for  a  first  offence  by  a  fine  of  £10,  or  twenty  days'  impris- 
onment; for  a  second  offence  by  a  fine  of  £20,  or  the  pil- 
lory; for  a  third  offence  by  a  fine  of  £40,  the  pillory,  the 
loss  of  the  left  car,  and  judicial  infamy  ! !  This  statute 
was  not  repealed  till  1824.  Is  it  supposed  these  laws  were 
not  put  in  execution  ?  Listen  to  Green,  in  his  "History  of 
the  English  People  :"  "  We  find  the  magistrates  of  Somer- 
setshire capturing  a  gang  of  a  hundred  at  a  stroke,  hanging 
fifty  at  once  on  the  gallows,  and  complaining  bitterly  that 
they  had  to  wait  till  the  next  Assizes  before  they  conld 
enjoy  the  spectacle  of  the  other  fifty  hanging  beside  them." 

Never  had  such  misery,  such  discontent,  filled  the  realm 
as  in  the  last  years  of  Henry  and  in  the  reigns  of  Edward 
and  Mary.  The  first  years  of  Elizabeth  were  quite  as  mis- 
erable; but  a  gleam  of  hope  came  with  the  new  adminis- 
tration, and  it  was  easier  to  bear.  A  year  of  unusual  plen- 
ty sometimes  brought  a  temporary  relief. 

The  growth  of  commerce  and  the  development  of  new 
industries  would  have  given  permanent  relief,  had  the  la- 
borer been  able  to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity. 
Sixteen  years  of  privation,  however,  had  robbed  him  of  all 
power  of  resisting  arbitrary  wages.  The  struggle  was  not 
now  for  his  rights,  it  was  for  bread.  For  the  first  time  in 
two  hundred  years  the  laborer  submitted  to  have  his  wages 
fixed  by  statute.  How  the  Justices  of  the  Peace  estimated 
the  value  of  a  day's  labor  under  the  statute,  and  how  the 
workman  fared  under  it,  will  be  seen  as  we  proceed. 

How  little  share  the  artisan  and  laborer  had  in  their 
country's  affairs  may  be  understood  when  we  consider  that 
some  of  these  years  of  distress  are  by  common  consent  the 
golden  age  of  England.  No  such  galaxy  of  poets,  states- 
men, warriors  ever  clustered  round  the  English  throne.  No 
such  names  adorn  another  page  of  English  history.     The 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED.  33 

realm  of  England  was,  during  a  decade  of  years,  the  stage 
across  which  a  grand  triiiiiiph  was  proceeding.  In  the 
gorgeous  pageant  we  see  the  heroic  forms  of  Sidney,  Ra- 
leigh, Drake  —  sons  of  Hercules  who  adventured  through 
the  trackless  ocean,  and  won  to  new  gardens  of  the  Hesper- 
ides,  and  brought  home  the  apples  of  gold  to  lay  them  at 
the  feet  of  the  virgin  queen.  Veritable  slayers  of  dragons 
were  they  who  swept  the  Spaniards  from  the  sea  and  un- 
locked the  treasures  of  the  Occident ;  and  greater  than  they 
Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Johnson,  whose  great  shades  possess 
the  stage  even  to  this  day ;  Cecil  and  Walsingham  direct- 
ing and  marshalling  the  pageant,  and  high  over  all,  to  whom 
all  eyes  devoutly  turned,  Elizabeth,  the  incarnation  of  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  the  inspirer  of  all  this  endeavor.  It  is  a 
glorious  age,  steeped  in  golden  light,  resonant  with  song 
and  jubilant  with  victory.  But  nowhere  is  the  pale  face 
of  the  laborer  to  be  seen  amid  all  this  splendor.  To  him 
these  men  are  gods,  and  this  pageantry  is  of  anotlier 
sphere.  And  yet  when  this  temporary  triumph  has  passed 
across  the  stage  and  is  gone  forever,  it  is  his  misery  that 
colors  the  scene,  it  is  his  ghastly  figure  that  affrights  the 
last  moments  of  the  dying  queen. 

The  year  1597,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  table  (p.  39), 
was  one  of  famine.  The  case  of  the  laboring  man  became 
so  shocking  that  it  was  felt  "something  had  to  be  done." 
It  never  seemed  to  strike  anybody  that  the  only  thing  nec- 
essary to  do  was  to  allow  demand  to  fix  the  price  of  the 
laborer's  day's  work. 

It  was  doubtless  with  an  honest  and  charitable  purpose 
to  relieve  the  wretchedness  of  the  laborer,  that  in  1601  the 
English  Poor-law  was  passed.  It  was  a  scheme  of  benevo- 
lence, and  it  is  probably  not  the  fault  of  its  creators  tliat 
it  became  an  instrument  of  degradation. 

It  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  that  at  this  time,  and  for 
3 


84  THE    LABOR    I'ROHLEM. 

centuries  later,  capital  meant  the  landed  interest,  and  the 
employers  of  labor  were  the  land-owners  and  their  tenants. 
Commerce  was  in  its  infancy,  and  located  exclusively  in 
London  and  in  two  or  three  small  seaports.  Manufactures, 
in  any  sense  in  which  we  understand  them,  had  not  been 
dreamed  of.  The  land  absorbed  everything,  and  the  land- 
owner exercised  every  governmental  function  and  filled  ev- 
ery official  position.  The  protection  of  landed  capital  was 
then  supposed  by  very  good  men  to  be  a  necessity  of  State, 
as  the  protection  of  manufacturing  capital  is  supposed  by 
very  good  men  to  be  at  this  day.  At  first.  Capital  only 
was  protected  at  the  sole  expense  of  Labor,  until  the  laborer 
died  of  starvation.  Then  the  Poor-law  intervened  to  pro- 
tect both  at  the  expense  of  the  whole  property  of  the  king- 
dom, just  as  the  tariff  has  intervened  to  protect  both  to- 
day at  the  expense  of  the  consumer. 

The  new  Poor-law  provided  that  assessors  should  be  ap- 
pointed in  every  parish  to  assess  a  tax  on  the  whole  prop- 
erty in  the  parish  sufficient  to  maintain  the  aged  and  inca- 
pable poor,  and  to  supplement  the  wages  of  the  honest  and 
industrious  poor  who  could  not  earn  a  living  by  a  charity 
or  dole  distributed  at  the  almshouse. 

When,  therefore,  the  Justices  of  the  Peace — land-owners 
— met,  as  required  by  law,  to  fix  the  wages  which  the  me- 
chanic and  laborer  should  be  permitted  to  earn  in  their 
parish  during  the  coming  year,  they  had  every  temptation 
to  fix  thera  as  low  as  possible,  because  the  land-owner  was 
in  those  days  almost  the  sole  employer  of  labor.  When, 
immediately  afterwards,  the  same  persons,  or  men  of  their 
class,  assembled  as  assessors  of  poor-rates,  to  levy  a  tax 
for  the  support  of  the  parish  poor,  they  doubtless  remem- 
bered their  own  laborers,  whose  wages  they  had  just  fixed 
at  starvation  rates,  and  by  doing  so  had  constituted  them 
the  parish  poor;  and  as  all  property  had  to  pay  this  tax — 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED.  35 

the  doctor's,  the  lawyer's,  the  grocer's,  the  clcro-ytnan's — 
the  rate  was  made  a  liberal  one.  And  so  we  find,  year  by 
year,  the  capitalist  unloading  more  and  more  of  the  wages 
of  his  own  laborer  on  the  public,  until  finally  it  comes 
about  that  wages  are  paid  half  in  money  by  the  employer 
and  half  in  alms  by  the  public  at  the  poor-house  gate. 
Can  anything  be  more  repugnant  to  every  sense  of  honor 
and  decency  and  justice?  Look  at  the  case  of  the  honest 
workman.  He  is  strong,  and  full  of  life,  and  full  of  work. 
He  has  a  wife  and  family  dependent  on  him  for  support. 
He  hies  him  to  the  justice's  court,  to  hear  how  much  wages 
he  dare  demand,  or  any  man  dare  pay  him  for  a  year  to 
come.  He  hears  with  horror  the  paltry  sura  their  Honors 
allow  him  to  earn,  for  well  he  knows  it  will  not  buy  his 
food,  much  less  pay  rents  and  clothe  his  wife  and  children. 
Can  it  be  possible  that  an  able-bodied  man's  labor  is  not 
worth  his  food  ?  But  he  is  told  he  can  get  bread  at  the 
poor-house. 

He  hears  that  wages  in  a  neighboring  county  are  double 
what  he  can  earn  in  his  own,  and  in  a  moment  of  forget- 
fulness  he  trudges  off  to  seek  work  there.  But  stop,  my 
friend  ;  the  Law  of  Parochial  Settlement  provides  that,  im- 
mediately on  entering  a  parish,  you  must  furnish  good  and 
suflBcient  security  that  you  will  not  become  chargeable  to 
the  poor-rates  of  the  parish,  and  as  you  have  no  security 
— for  who  will  go  security  for  this  wretched  tramp — you 
must  go  to  jail  till  the  authorities  have  an  opportunity  to 
return  you  to  your  own  parish.  Poor  wretch  !  In  a  short 
time  he  is  sent  home  again,  and  as  expense  has  been  incur- 
red by  his  reckless  and  wicked  conduct  in  leaving  his  own 
parish  to  look  for  living  wages,  ho  is  sent  to  jail  io  work  it 
out.  But  what  of  his  wife  and  family  all  this  time?  Oli, 
they  can  go  to  the  poor-house!  And  this  legal  pauperiz- 
ing^ of  lidMcst  labor  was  submiKeil  to  for  over  two  eenturies  ! 


36  THK    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

Could  there  be  a  fjreater  outrage?  Tliiiik  of  a  free  work- 
man, honest,  capable,  industrious,  compelled  to  be  a  pauper 
and  to  receive,  hat  in  hand,  at  the  almshouse  gate,  in  sight 
of  all  his  neighbors,  from  his  youth  to  hoary  age,  as  alms, 
a  large  proportion  of  the  wages  honestly  earned  by  his  la- 
bor; and  to  know  that  his  children,  from  generation  to 
generation,  shall  live  this  pauper's  life,  and  shall  go  down 
into  a  pauper's  grave. 

Under  this  system  the  generations  of  the  English  labor- 
er and  artisan  lived  from  1601  to  1824.  Under  this  sys- 
tem England  began  and  developed  her  enormous  manufact- 
uring interests,  creating  new  pauper  capitalists  to  be  served 
by  new  pauper  laborers.  Under  this  system,  when  she  be- 
came less  choice  in  her  selection  of  the  men  who  should 
die  in  her  foreign  wars,  she  condescended  to  accept  the 
life  of  the  pauper  youth,  and  thereby  transferred  the  stigma 
— the  ancient  stigma  of  his  serfdom,  the  present  stigma  of 
his  pauperism — to  the  hitherto  honorable  position  of  the 
English  soldier ;  a  stigma  that  attaches  to  the  bravest  man, 
the  truest  patriot  who  fights  his  country's  battles  in  the 
ranks  to  this  day.  Under  this  system  England  became 
mistress  of  the  seas  and  controller  of  the  commerce  and 
manufactures  of  the  world.  Under  this  system,  and  with 
these  men,  she  has  conquered  empires,  overturned  dynasties, 
and  won  triumphs  of  peace  as  well  as  of  war,  before  which 
the  illuminated  glories  of  her  mediaeval  past  pale  and  sink 
into  insignificance. 

Out  of  the  laborer's  blood  was  coined  the  colossal  fort- 
unes of  the  Arkwrights,  the  Peels,  and  of  every  man  made 
rich  by  manufacturing  down  to  1840.  Out  of  his  blood 
was  coined  the  enormous  sums  which  England  spent  in 
her  foreign  wars  from  1750  to  1815,  of  which  a  small 
remainder  exists  in  her  national  debt  of  $4,000,000,000. 
Out  of  his  blood  was  extracted  the  enormous  sums  assess- 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED.  37 

ed  to  maintain  the  poor,  of  which  abont  one-half  was  doled 
out  to  himself  in  alms,  in  lieu  of  wages,  and  which  in  the 
two  centuries  and  a  half  since  the  passing  of  the  Poor-law 
amount  to  not  less  than  $3,500,000,000.  Out  of  his  blood, 
too,  was  coined  the  awful  increment  of  England's  wealth 
which  accrued  in  the  three  centuries  ending  with  1850, 
and  which  amounted  to  not  less  than  $15,000,000,000. 
For  this  he  was  starved  till  he  revolted,  and  when  he 
revolted  he  was  trodden  under  the  iron  heel  of  authority 
till  he  became  a  savage ;  and  he  was  hanged,  and  exiled  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  imprisoned,  and  circumscribed 
with  laws  so  inhuman  that  Lord  Byron  exclaimed,  on  the 
second  reading  of  one  of  the  bills  in  Parliament,  that  the 
jury  to  try  cases  under  that  law  should  consist  of  twelve 
butchers,  and  the  judge  should  be  a  Jefferies. 

It  is  needless  to  enter  into  details  of  the  atrocities  per- 
petrated on  the  laborers  during  the  half  century  ending 
with  1824  under  form  of  law.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
conditions  which  the  capitalist  then  sought  to  impose  on 
the  laborer,  and  the  miseries  which  came  of  them,  have 
been  outrages  on  humanity  compared  with  which  the  tem- 
porary ferocities  of  the  hungry  mob  have  been  childish 
follies.  The  capitalist  had  his  day  of  absolute  power,  and 
used  it  brutally.  In  order  to  procure  subsistence  the  Eng- 
lish laborer  has  surrendered  his  children  almost  in  infancy 
— at  wages  as  inadequate  as  his  own — to  the  slavery  of  the 
factory,  mortgaging  the  energies  of  a  second  generation 
for  the  survival  of  the  present  one.  The  wonder  is  that 
the  English  laborer  has  neither  been  a  socialist  nor  a  com- 
munist. Under  it  all  the  Englishman's  tremendous  powers 
of  endurance,  the  real  powers  which  have  made  him  mas- 
ter of  the  world,  have  enabled  hiin  in  the  main  to  continue 
a  lavv-al)iditig  and  even  a  loyal  citizen. 

This  much  space  has  been  given  to  a  review  of  the  his- 


38  THE    LABOR    PKOBLEM. 

toiical  relations  of  the  parties  to  this  conflict,  inasmuch  as 
the  fcelin<i;s  gendered  by  centuries  of  such  unequal  strife 
have  passed  into  a  tradition  of  labor;  they  have  created  a 
liabit  of  thought,  a  hereditary  mental  condition,  which  has 
become  natural  to  the  laborer.  It  is  like  a  strain  in  the 
blood,  it  is  ever-present  and  cannot  be  soon  eradicated. 
It  is  idle  folly,  therefore,  to  ignore  it. 

When,  in  1824,  the  laws  circumscribing  his  liberty  were 
repealed,  the  workman  stood  on  the  border-land  of  a  future 
infinitely  brighter  than  his  "good  old  times"  had  ever 
been  —  one  of  independence,  comfort,  and  a  high  civility 
unknown  to  his  forefathers.  But  this  for  a  time  he  did 
not  or  would  not  see.  The  bitterness  of  centuries  had 
burned  into  his  soul  and  stained  his  judgment,  and  so 
his  first  hours  of  freedom  were  hours  of  wild  license  and 
desperate  outrage ;  and  when  that  orgie  passed,  when  he 
had  time  to  perceive  that  all  laws  trammelling  his  free 
agency  had  been  abolished,  when  he  was  free  to  name  the 
price  of  bis  labor  and  refuse  less  than  bis  price,  when  it 
was  lawful  to  combine  with  his  companions  to  establish  the 
value  of  his  day's  work,  when  the  State  freely  educated 
himself  and  his  children  so  that  he  could  keep  abreast  of 
the  civilization  of  the  age,  he  still  continued  to  believe  that 
he  had  rights  to  maintain,  if  not  wrongs  to  revenge.  He 
has  crossed  the  Atlantic  bearing  with  him  a  sense  of  griev- 
ance and  the  memory  of  slavery,  inferiority,  and  wrong ; 
and  to-day,  on  American  soil,  well  fed,  well  clad,  and  edu- 
cated, he  confronts  the  capitalist  as  grimly  as  when  he 
smashed  the  stocking  frames  at  Nottingham,  and  boldly 
and  defiantly  expiated  the  offence  on  the  gallows. 

The  following  table  pictures  the  decay  of  the  laborer 
under  capitalist  supremacy  during  five  centuries: 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED. 


39 


-  ai 

■'  o 

—  o 

r8 


:33 


o  c  «i 


<5  6  ii 


S'^ 


r  £  § 


to  to  ^s  Sf  I-' 

c  2  — >p  :; 


^ 


hd     ►:;  CO 


t-'bi 


►-'  >-'         >f- 


10.   1-'  2- 

lOOlOO  m 


00  JOIO 

C  CCi— ■ 


^^eo  t-" 


10  w  it-  w  «o  " 

Oi  Ci  o  -1  ■»  " 


o  5i  o  o  iJ-  r 


40  TIIK    LAltOK    1'KOHLKM. 


THE  LABORER  FREE  AND  AGGRESSIVE. 

Tlio  law  assessing  wages  was  falling  into  abeyance.  The 
mill-owners  found  they  could  induce  starving  children  to 
work  for  smaller  wages  than  the  consciences  of  the  justices 
— still  land-owners — would  permit  them  to  assess.  The 
law  was  accordingly  repealed  in  1814.  Labor  could  not  le- 
gally organize,  and  the  laborer  was  now  at  the  mercy  of 
the  new  capitalist,  the  manufacturer,  and  he  soon  found 
that  if  the  landed  capitalist  had  chastised  him  with  whips, 
the  mill -owner  capitalist  was  chastising  him  with  scor- 
pions. The  new  capital  was  well  organized,  and  the 
laborer  discovered  that  his  wages  unassessed  were  no 
better  than  the  old  statute  wages — if  anything,  they  were 
worse. 

The  return  of  peace  (1815)  threw  immense  numbers  of 
discharged  soldiers  and  sailors  on  the  labor  markets ;  the 
infamous  Corn-law  was  passed  by  the  land-owning  legisla- 
tors in  their  own  interest;  wages  were  paid  in  paper-mon- 
ey depreciated  30  per  cent. ;  machinery  had  in  many  man- 
ufactories superseded  seven-eighths  of  the  operatives,  and 
had  not  yet  created  the  increased  demand  for  the  product 
which  would  cause  them  to  be  re-employed ;  and  from  all 
these  causes  a  distress  similar  to  that  of  1597,  which  created 
the  Poor-law,  brought  matters  to  a  crisis.  The  average  price 
of  a  bushel  of  wheat  in  1812  was  $3.80,  in  1813  $3.29, 
and  in  1817  $2.91.  The  amount  spent  in  relief  of  the 
poor  in  1814  was  $31,500,000,  in  1818  $34,350,000,  in 
1820  $36,500,000.  The  support  of  the  poor  threatened 
to  eat  up  the  profits  of  all  labor.  It  is  to  Mr.  Joseph 
Hume  the  workman  is  indebted  at  this  crisis  for  suggest- 
ing that  it  would  be  well  to  leave  the  laborer  alone  to 
manage  his  own  affairs — to  get  the  highest  wages  compe- 
tition in  a  free  market  would  yield  him,  and  to  permit  him 


THE    COKFfifcCT'^ISTORlCABl/E^baMSlDERED.  41 


to  combine  with  bis  ie]Jq@|^Wb^5je^tne  market  price  as 
higb  as  possibldw  ^     -^,.^v-^^^  ' 

In  1824  a  birk^ift^odtt«SMJy*1iin^  ^came  a  law.  It 
repealed  all  laws  agMast  ootnbiQaUohs  of  workmen  con- 
cerning wages  and  bours  of  work,  and  labor  was  now  fur 
the  first  time  free  to  organize  for  its  own  protection.  This 
date,  therefore,  marks  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  hibor. 

When  the  shackles  were  stricken  oS  the  British  work- 
man, be  was  like  a  man  turned  out  of  prison  after  a  long 
confinement.  He  was  dazed ;  be  did  not  know  how  to 
use  bis  liberty.  For  centuries  it  had  been  unlawful  for 
him  to  combine  for  any  purpose,  so  he  rushed  into  combi- 
nations. Trades-unions  sprang  up  all  over  the  country, 
and  their  operations  were  directed  by  the  boldest  and  wild- 
est spirits.  His  wages  had  been  fixed  for  centuries  by  the 
capitalist,  and  enforced  by  law  ;  he  would  fix  wages  for  the 
capitalist,  and  enforce  them  by  strikes.  The  old  working- 
day  had  been  lengthened  by  law  in  spite  of  the  workman ; 
he  would  now  fix  the  hours  of  labor  in  spite  of  the  em- 
ployer. He  had  for  centuries  been  void  of  political  rights; 
his  cry  was  for  "Radical  Reform."  The  laborer  retaliated 
on  the  capitalist  the  wrongs  the  capitalist  for  so  long  time 
had  inflicted  on  him.  We  are  simply  travelling  over  the 
same  dreary  road  of  injustice  and  misery  and  wrong,  with 
this  only  difference,  that  the  workers  of  the  wrong  are 
now  the  capitalist  and  laborer  instead  of  the  capitalist 
alone.  One  of  the  worst  periods  of  English  labor  are 
these  first  days  of  freedom.  They  were  days  of  great  suf- 
fering and  great  license.  The  number  of  death  sentences 
was  enormous;  from  9G8  in  1823  it  grew  to  1529  in  1827, 
and  to  1601  in  1831.  Very  few  of  these  sentences  were 
carried  into  execution,  the  universal  misery  moving  Execu- 
tive clemency.  From  this  period  strikes  are  incessant.  In 
three  cases  out  of  four  they  were  unsuccessful  as  to  the 


42  THE    LAROR    PROBLEM. 

actual  object  immediately  aimed  at;  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  the  agitation  had  its  effect.  Capital  cannot  thrive 
in  a  state  of  war;  and  it  has  been  conclusively  shown  by 
instance  after  instance  that  the  workman  and  his  family 
will  endure  privation  with  more  patience  than  the  capital- 
ist will  perceive  his  capital  lie  unproductive.  These  strikes 
the  masters  attempted  to  control  by  using  the  provisions 
of  the  common  law  against  conspiracy,  and  for  some  time 
they  obtained  judgments  of  the  courts  in  their  favor,  con- 
trary to  all  just  interpretation  of  the  law.  Prosecution 
harassed  the  unions,  but  knit  them  up  into  a  National 
Association  of  United  Trades,  and  made  them  stronger  and 
more  aggressive.  It  trained  the  leaders  to  conduct  their 
proceedings  in  an  orderly  and  legal  manner.  It  accustom- 
ed the  workman,  by  degrees,  to  submit  to  wholesome  disci- 
pline ;  but  for  the  time  it  inflamed  the  spirit  of  rancor  and 
revenge,  and  crimes  were  perpetrated  on  both  sides  during 
the  progress  of  the  strife.  The  bitter  feelings  of  the  past 
were  transferred  to  this  generation,  and  animate  our  strikes 
to-day.  In  1875  the  last  of  the  penal  laws  affecting  labor 
were  swept  from  the  English  statute-book,  and  the  conflict 
on  that  side  the  Atlantic  began  to  assume  a  more  humane 
character.  Except  in  the  case  of  the  Sheffield  outrages  the 
war  has  not  been  stained  by  gross  or  malignant  cruelties 
in  the  last  twenty  years.  English  capitalists  and  English 
laborers  have  entered  on  the  era  of  arbitration. 

The  units  of  comparison  by  which  the  progress  of  the 
workman  has  been  measured  seem  to  cover  but  a  small 
number  of  the  workman's  expenditures  at  this  day.  Un- 
der the  head  of  groceries  are  many  articles  of  comfort  and 
luxury  not  known  to  the  laborer  of  former  centuries.  Yet, 
give  the  British  workman  to-day  his  bread,  beer,  meat,  and 
rent,  and  it  is  remarkable  how  large  a  pro])ortion  of  his 
outlay  can  still  be  brought  legitimately  under  these  heads. 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDEREU. 


43 


The  following-  table   exhibits  bis  progress  during  this 
century  in  a  general  way  : 


1  busli.  wheat 

1820. 

1840. 

18G0. 

1880. 

1884. 

$3  34 

1  06 

1  34 

48 

00 

$1  99 

89 

1  14 

96 

48 

$1  60 

56 

2  30 

1  46 

48 

$1  33 

50 

3  57 

1  93 

67 

$1  08 

47 

3  20 

1  92 

48 

X    "      malt 

30  lbs.  meat 

2  weeks'  rent 

2      "       fuel 

1  day's  washes  of  carpenter 

"           "       "  laborer 

Batio  of  wages  to  price  of  five  ar- 
ticles : 
Carpenter 

$5  83 

73 
36 

13i 
6.3 

$5  46 

81 
36 

15 
6.3 

$6  40 

96 

48 

15 

7.5 

$6  99 

1  30 
50 

17 
7.1 

$7  15 

1  36 
60 

19 
8.4 

Laborer 

But  who  can  measure  by  these  figures  the  comfort,  the 
cleanliness,  the  intelligence,  the  education,  the  self-respect, 
the  social  weight  which  these  figures  represent.  The  work- 
man walks  erect,  no  serf  nor  pauper,  but  a  self-reliant,  in- 
dependent citizen,  whose  duty  it  is  to  exact  sternly  and 
uncompromisingly  whatever  remains  lacking  of  social  and 
political  and  mercantile  consideration.  Tliis  position  the 
workman  lias  conquered  from  the  capitalist  by  union. 

The  unions  have  conducted  the  conflict  on  English  soil 
with  great  ability.  They  number  over  1,250,000  mem- 
bers; their  accumulated  funds  amount  to  $10,000,000,  and 
the  amounts  they  have  exjiended  in  the  forty  years  for 
maintenance  during  strikes  and  for  sick  benefits  have  been 
enormous.  They  liave  obtained  a  recognition  from  Gov- 
ernment, and  are  consulted  on  every  measure  affecting  the 
workman  and  his  interests.  Under  their  intelligent  con- 
duct of  the  workman's  cause  strikes  have  become  of  rare 
occurrence,  and  are  usually  quickly  ami  peaceably  settled. 
Many  of  the  strikes  of  late  years  have  been  engaged  in 


44  TIIK    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

contrary  to  tlie  advice  of  the  Executive  Committees.  The 
more  intelligent  of  the  English  workmen  have  begun  to 
see  that  striking  is  a  clumsy,  uneconomical  way  of  settling 
a  ditficulty. 

It  is  a  question  much  disputed  whether  the  organization 
of  trades-unions,  and  the  striking  which  resulted,  are  to  be 
credited  with  the  great  improvement  in  the  condition  of 
the  English  workman.  The  capitalist  points  to  the  phe- 
nomenal growth  of  commerce  and  manufacture,  and  claims 
that  the  increase  in  wages,  and  in  the  purchasing  power  of 
wages,  are  due  entirely  to  the  country's  development.  They 
point  to  the  growth  of  British  trade  from  $550,000,000 
per  annum  in  1831-40  to  $3,500,000,000  in  1884,  and 
say  there  is  the  source  of  your  high  wages.  It  is  true  that 
when  this  agitation  was  at  its  height,  when  capitalist  and 
laborer  were  straining  every  constitutional  and  legal  right 
in  the  conflict,  England  passed  through  a  period  of  phe- 
nomenal business  activity.  Between  1845  and  1875  the 
whole  method  of  manufactures  and  commerce  changed. 
The  old  costly  mode  of  transportation  by  land  and  sea  was 
abandoned,  and  steam  carriage  was  universally  adopted. 

Since  1846  Great  Britain  has  built  18,668  miles  of  rail- 
road, the  United  States  over  120,000  miles — the  capital 
invested  in  these  roads  reaches  the  enormous  figures  of 
$12,500,000,000.  In  1850,  seventy-seven  per  cent,  of  the 
commerce  of  the  world  was  borne  by  sailing  ships,  now 
seventy  per  cent,  is  carried  by  steam  vessels. 

Dy  Sail.  By  Steamer. 

1850 19,2.30,000  tons.  5,850,000  tons. 

1883 42,630,000    "  109,450,000     " 

The  construction  of  railroads  and  the  substitution  of 
iron  for  wood  in  the  construction  of  sliips  have  called  into 
existence  the  colossal  iron  and  coal  industries,  and  created 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED.  45 

a  manufacturing  age.  The  laborer  has,  during  thirty 
years,  raade  his  fight  on  a  constantly  growing  demand. 
The  conditions  for  a  contest  were  created  by  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  combination  laws ;  the  material  for  the  conflict 
was  supplied  by  the  abolition  of  the  Corn-laws ;  and  the 
opportunity  was  furnished  by  the  period  of  practically  un- 
limited demand  for  labor.  The  immense  sums  of  money 
which  were  put  in  circulation  by  these  constantly  growing 
and  widening  industries  brought  plenty  and  comfort  and 
even  luxury  within  the  reach  of  workmen  whose  parents 
lived  in  a  state  of  semi-starvation  ;  wages  steadily  increased, 
and  funds  for  prosecuting  the  work  of  the  unions  were 
readily  obtained. 

Undoubtedly  it  is  true  that  without  these  conditions 
wages  could  not  have  been  so  continuously  high,  and  the 
workmen  so  continuously  prosperous.  The  mere  occupying 
the  North  American  continent,  which  has  been  the  work 
of  the  last  two  generations,  would  of  itself  have  increased 
the  wages  in  all  the  countries  furnishing  the  occupying 
races;  to  these  two  sources  part  of  the  credit  is  due.  But 
it  is  equally  true  that  had  the  laborer  not  been  free  to  or- 
ganize, and  had  he  not  organized  so  thoroughly  and  held 
on  to  his  rights  so  tenaciously,  he  would  certainly  have  been 
defrauded  out  of  his  share  of  all  this  prosperity.  We  have 
been  at  some  pains  to  set  forth  the  relations  of  capitalist 
and  laborer  in  by-gone  generations,  and  the  record,  as  has 
been  seen,  is  one  of  intolerable  greed  and  conscienceless 
plunder  on  one  side,  and  of  monumental  suffering  on  the 
other.  We  have  seen  the  laborer  in  the  relations  capital 
selected  for  liim,  made  for  him,  and  compelled  him  to  ac- 
cept. They  have  been  those  of  the  serf  and  the  pauper. 
If  the  laborer  in  Europe  is  more  than  these  to-day,  it  is 
the  result  of  organization  ;  if  the  American  laborer  intends 
to  maintain  his  independence,  organization  is  essential,     ll 


46  tup:  lauor  problem. 

is  essential  to  his  progress  in  civilization  ;  it  is  essential  to 
liis  progress  in  education,  morals,  and  manners  ;  it  is  essen- 
tial to  the  preservation  of  his  manliness  and  self-respect. 
The  day  is  not  yet  come  for  the  lion  to  lie  down  with 
the  lamb.  The  workman  had  better  give  up  his  life  than 
his  organization. 

On  this  side  the  Atlantic  the  white  laborer  lias  never 
experienced  the  privations  of  his  European  brother.  Po- 
litically he  has  all  along  been  any  man's  equal.  It  is  per- 
fectly needless,  however,  to  say  that  his  position  has  not 
been  entirely  exempt  from  the  social  stigma  which  was 
put  on  honest  labor  centuries  ago.  His  income  has  been 
comparatively  stationary,  while  mere  speculators  and  pro- 
tected manufacturers  have  amassed  immense  fortunes. 
But  his  wages  have  been  attractive  to  foreign  labor.  No 
such  volume  of  labor  has  ever  been  thrown  on  any  shores 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  It  is  fortunate  for  the  United 
States  laborer  that  the  development  of  an  unoccupied  con- 
tinent has  maintained  a  demand  thus  far  equal  to  the  im- 
mense supply.  The  troubles  that  exist  here  between  Labor 
and  Capital  are  of  foreign  growth,  created  and  kept  alive 
by  foreigners.  They  exhibit  all  the  animosities  gendered 
during  ages  of  oppression  on  foreign  soil,  transferred  to  a 
country  where  the  rights  of  man — the  negro's  excepted — 
have  always  been  respected,  where  want  has  been  compara- 
tively unknown,  where  the  privileges  of  the  workman  have 
been  exceptionally  great.  They  have  depreciated  the  sta- 
tus of  labor  materially.  They  have  driven  the  American 
workman  in  self-defence  largely  into  a  middle-man  class. 
Twenty  per  cent,  of  all  American  labor  is  done  by  foreign- 
ers, and  probably  fifty  per  cent,  by  foreigners  and  men 
born  in  the  United  States  of  foreign  parents.  Many  of 
these  men  have  been  imported  to  work  at  lower  than  cur- 
rent wages,  and  such  men  avenge  this  wrong  done  on  Labor 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED.  47 

by  perpetrating  outrages  repugnant  to  the  American  cliar- 
acter.  The  American  spirit  is  so  strongly  opposed  to  out- 
rage that  it  is  probable  this  would  never  give  business 
serious  trouble,  were  it  not  for  the  incompetence  and  dem- 
agoguery  of  local  governments.  The  people  can  always 
handle  labor  or  any  other  troubles  in  this  country  when 
they  make  up  their  minds  to  do  it. 

Organization,  however,  is  as  essential  to  the  safe  and 
self-respecting  existence  of  the  laborer  on  American  soil  as 
in  European  communities. 

PROPER    AIMS    OF    TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS. 

But  wLat  should  be  the  proper  aims  and  methods  of  a 
trades  organization  ?  Our  review  has  shown  us  that  law 
cannot  impose  arbitrary  wages  on  laborers  free  to  com- 
bine; unions  cannot  impose  arbitrary  wages  on  employers 
free  to  combine  or  withdraw  from  business.  The  wages 
must  be  contained  within  the  product,  and  must  admit 
provision  for  interest  on  invested  capital  and  otber  ex- 
pense. To  look  upon  the  union  as  a  machinery  for  direct- 
ing a  strike  is  like  considering  a  government  as  a  ma- 
chinery for  waging  war.  Some  great  masters  of  govern- 
ment have  made  the  latter  mistake,  some  great  directors  of 
labor  seem  to  make  the  other.  A  strike  is  a  labor  war.  It 
is  an  incident,  an  unhappy  incident,  not  an  object,  of 
union.  It  is  a  calamity  whether  it  succeed  or  fail.  Wars 
and  strikes  are  rarely  necessary  and  always  barbarous — ex- 
cusable, perhaps,  in  tlie  infancies  of  States  and  unions,  but 
proof  of  a  thin  civilization. 

What,  therefore,  should  be  tlie  motives,  aims,  and  meth- 
ods of  a  trades  organization  ?  Unquestionably  the  motive 
of  union  among  men  ought  to  be  the  welfare  of  themselves 
and  of  the  society  or  State  of  wliich  they  are  citizens.  No 
motive  short  of  one  of  large  humanity  justifies  the  associ- 


48  THE    LAHOR    PROBLEM. 

ation  of  men  in  these  strenuous  days.  If  the  trades-unions 
fail  of  this  motive  tliey  will  miscarry.  It  is  a  necessity  of 
association  tliat  it  be  either  beneficial  or  hurtful  to  society, 
and  if  it  be  not  openly,  honestly,  avowedly  beneficial  it 
can  hardly  be  other  than  hurtful.  The  aims  of  such  an 
association  should  be  evident  enough.  It  is  not  enough  in 
this  nineteenth  century  that  they  should  be  merely  those 
beneficiary  ones  of  the  ancient  guilds,  although  those — relief 
in  sickness,  funeral  rites  at  death,  and  assistance  to  the 
widow  and  orphan — are  noble  aims  and  should  not  be  omit- 
ted. But  there  must  be  more.  If  it  be  true  that  the 
laborer  has  not  his  full  share  of  the  product  of  his  labor  in 
his  customary  wages,  it  surely  becomes  the  members  of  an 
organization  to  be  able  to  compute  labor  rights  in  the 
product.  How  many  members  or  officers  of  unions  can 
do  it?  It  involves  a  knowledge  of  the  market  price  of 
raw  material,  rates  of  freight,  insurance,  and  interest ;  of 
•wages,  and  of  the  course  of  the  markets  in  which  the  prod- 
uct is  sold.  If  there  be  truth  in  the  allegation  that  labor 
is  defrauded,  then  the  union  must  take  the  place  of  the 
capitalist,  and  the  highest  species  of  association,  co-opera- 
tion, must  do  him  justice.  This  involves  education,  and 
one  aim  of  all  labor  organizations  ought  to  be  education. 
Capitalists  are  educated  men  as  a  rule;  laborers  must  edu- 
cate themselves. 

A  legitimate  aim  of  trades-unions  should  be  the  recovery 
of  any  ancient  rights  which  labor  has  lost.  They  have 
recovered  their  freedom,  they  have  clothed  themselves  with 
all  political  rights  essential  to  its  maintenance  (at  least  on 
this  side  the  Atlantic).  Among  the  rights  they  have  not 
recovered  is  the  workman's  ancient  day  of  eight  hours. 
The  English  workman  has  in  many  trades  reduced  his  day 
to  nine  hours.  Where  the  work  amounts  to  physical  toil 
it  cannot  be  pursued  economically — that  is  in  the  best  man- 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED.  49 

nor — longer  than  eiglit  liours.  There  are  some  occupations 
making  small  demands  on  the  physical  energies ;  for  these 
a  longer  day  may  be  necessary,  in  the  interests  both  of  em- 
ployer and  employed.  A  shorter  day  than  ten  or  twelve 
hours  is  necessary  if  education  is  to  be  acquired  by  the 
workman,  and  education  is  a  necessity. 

Where  the  eight-hour  day  has  been  tried  it  has  been 
found  to  work  advantageously.  The  work  is  better  done 
and  the  quantity  has  not  decreased.  The  American  day's- 
work  is  ten  hours.  Many  trades  in  England  have  a  nine- 
hour  day,  and  in  some  establishments  an  eight-hour  day 
has  been  established  by  the  employer.  This  seems  to  be 
a  legitimate  aim  for  labor  associations  to  pursue. 

A  legitimate  object  of  trades  associations  is  to  procure 
the  enactment  of  national  laws  relating  to  employers  and 
employes,  their  mutual  rights  and  duties.  These  laws 
should  regulate — 

1.  The  employment  and  discharge  of  workers. 

2.  The  accepting  and  quitting  of  work. 

3.  The  sanitary  conditions  under  which  work  shall  be 
pursued. 

4.  The  moral  conditions  under  which  work  shall  be  pur- 
sued, with  particular  reference  to  the  employment  of  women 
and  children. 

The  workman  in  this  country  holds  the  sceptre  of  the 
ballot,  and  can  easily  acquire  all  he  is  justly  entitled  to  by 
constitutional  methods.  There  is  neither  power  nor  dis- 
position to  deny  to  any  man,  or  class  of  men,  right  and 
justice.  The  English  Parliament  has  at  the  instance,  and 
by  the  insistance,  of  trades  organizations  thrown  the  shield 
of  its  protection  over  the  workman,  the  woman  and  the 
child;  the  American  Congress  will  not  be  slow  to  afford 
the  same  protection. 

The  arbitrary  fixing  of  wages  is  not  a  proper  aim  for 
4 


50  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

the  union.  It  would  only  re-enact  the  old  labor  laws,  to 
the  misery  of  labor  and  the  ruin  of  the  capitalist.  On  a 
falling  market  it  would  fail ;  on  a  rising  market  the  em- 
ployer will  arbitrate.  In  cases  where  low  wages  are  the 
result  of  competition  between  manufacturers  or  others, 
unions  should  at  once  interfere.  Here  is  a  legitimate  field 
for  their  energies. 

In  their  original  bestowment  Capital  and  Labor  were 
united  in  the  same  hands.  Probably  the  greatest  miseries 
of  our  humanity  have  arisen  from  sundering  them.  It  is 
a  proper  aim  for  unions  to  endeavor  to  reunite  them.  This 
can  be  done  by  co-operation  in  many  lines  of  business. 
But  it  could  be  reached  by  adopting  some  basis  on  which 
employer  and  employed  may  unite. 

The  methods  of  trades  societies  are  important  factors  in 
any  question  of  ultimate  success. 

The  causes  on  account  of  which  the  ordinary  occupa- 
tions of  the  community  in  which  men  live,  and  by  which 
they  live,  are  interrupted,  should  be  weighty.  We  can- 
not divest  ourselves  of  moral  responsibility  in  this  matter. 
It  cannot  proceed  long  on  self-will.  Interference  with  the 
public  necessities  is  unwarranted,  except  for  causes  in 
which  the  particular  community  is  concerned,  and  unwar- 
ranted beyond  the  bounds  of  that  community.  The  best 
cause  may  be  ruined  by  improper  methods.  As  a  rule 
the  whole  procedure  of  strikes  is  an  improper  method. 
Intimidation,  mob-law,  destruction  of  property,  is  not  a 
procedure  for  a  free  people  with  vast  tracts  of  unoccupied 
lands.  AVhatever  may  be  the  causes  of  a  strike,  no  cause 
possible  to  exist  under  our  laws  will  justify  violation  of  law 
and  breach  of  the  peace. 

The  capitalist  has  not  hitherto  treated  the  laborer  as  a 
man.  In  this  the  capitalist  has  made  a  grievous  mistake. 
It  is  a  grievous  mistake  in  a  purely  economic  aspect.     No 


THE    CONFLICT    HISTORICALLY    CONSIDERED.  51 

great  or  permanent  returns  have  ever  been  gained  by 
Capital  from  oppressed  Labor.  The  growth  of  England's 
wealth  has  been  greater  in  the  last  twenty-five  years  of 
prosperous  and  highly  paid  labor  than  in  all  her  previous 
history.     Her  wealth  has  doubled  in  that  period. 

Labor  must  be  treated  at  least  as  well  as  any  other  source 
of  power.  A  steam-engine  is  well  housed,  well  fed  with 
fuel,  well  oiled,  and  well  governed  by  a  competent  engineer. 
For  its  economic  use,  it  must  work  smoothly  and  continu- 
ously. We  must  supply  it  with  all  that  its  material  consti- 
tution requires.  The  economic  use  of  the  horse  requires 
that  he  be  well  fed,  well  housed,  and  well  treated.  We 
must  supply  him  with  all  that  his  physical  nature  demands 
for  its  healthy  working.  In  like  manner,  the  economic  use 
of  the  man  requires  that  all  the  conditions  of  his  well-being 
shall  be  respected.  II is  physical  nature  must  be  supported 
by  good  food,  clean  and  comfortable  housing,  and  all  other 
good  sanitary  conditions;  but  he  has  an  intellectual  being  as 
well — its  health  must  be  provided  for  by  education,  by  the 
literature  at  least  of  his  business ;  he  is  a  moral  power,  sen- 
sitive to  right  and  wrong.  lie  must  be  influenced  to  right 
and  withdrawn  from  wrong,  or  you  will  have  a  destroy- 
er, not  a  worker.  But  is  the  economic  ground  the  only 
ground  on  which  this  equitable  treatment  of  the  laborer  is 
necessary?     Nay,  this  man  is  your  brother. 

And  this  brings  this  paper  to  an  end.  There  has  been 
no  wrong,  nor  misery,  nor  injustice,  recorded  here  that  has 
not  sprung  from  ignoring  the  fact  that  the  capitalist  and 
the  laborer  are,  after  all,  brethren.  Let  us  restore  the 
Brotherhood,  and  the  problem  is  solved. 


CIIArTEK  HI. 

A  SYMPOSIUM  ON  SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  TUE  LABOR 
QUESTION. 

MOTIVE    OF    TUE    INQUIRY. 

That  the  relations  of  Capital  and  Labor  in  this  country 
are  gradually,  but  none  the  less  surely,  becoming  more  un- 
satisfactory and  strained,  is  conceded  by  every  careful  ob- 
server. The  strikes  and  lock-outs  of  the  last  year,  with 
their  almost  invariable  accompaniments  of  disorder,  disas- 
ter, and  outrage,  have  pushed  the  so-called  labor  question 
into  un[)leasant  prominence.  Manufacturers,  economists, 
and  the  better  class  of  workmen  are  looking  about  not 
only  for  some  less  wasteful  and  more  rational  method  than 
the  one  now  in  vogue  for  the  settlement  of  differences 
which  inevitably  arise  between  employer  and  employe, 
but  to  discover  some  basis  on  which  both  parties  may 
stand  without  loss  of  independence,  manhood,  or  conceded 
rights.  To  the  consideration  of  some  of  the  many  schemes 
which  have  been  suggested  for  bringing  about  this  desira- 
ble result  we  have  devoted  several  chapters  of  this  book. 
The  questions  and  experiments  have  not  been  discussed 
with  any  expectation  or  thought  of  a  final  answer,  but  with 
a  sincere  hope  of  helping  the  reader  to  a  better  understand- 
ing of  the  reciprocal  relations  of  laborers  and  capitalists. 

Recognizing  the  wide-spread  and  growing  interest  as  to 
every  phase  of  the  labor  movement,  and  desiring  to  give 
the  public  the  benefit  of  the  latest  thoughts  upon  the  sub- 
ject, we  have  solicited  contributions  from  those  best  quali- 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.     53 

fied,  by  reason  of  experience  or  observation,  to  express  an 
opinion.  The  following  questions  were  sent  to  a  consider- 
able number  of  economists,  divines,  manufacturers,  Com- 
missioners of  Labor  Statistics,  working-men,  etc.,  with  a  re- 
quest for  concise  answers: 

1.  Are  strikes  and  lock-outs  a  necessary  feature  of  the 
wage  system  ? 

2.  Is  arbitration  the  missing  coupling  between  Labor  and 
Capital  ? 

3.  May  we  not  hope  to  discover  some  more  satisfactory 
and  equitable  basis  for  the  division  of  the  profits  arising 
from  industrial  enterprises? 

4.  Does  the  remedy  lie  in  the  direction  of  industrial  part- 
nerships—  a  mutual  participation  of  all  concerned  in  the 
profits  arising  from  production  ? 

5.  Is  productive  co-operation  practicable  in  the  United 
States  ? 

Instead  of  repeating  in  each  instance  the  above  interrog- 
atories, we  have  made  use  of  numerals,  to  indicate  the  con- 
nection between  questions  and  answers. 

VIEWS    OF    POLITICAL    ECONOMISTS. 

Professor  Edwin  R.  A.  Seligman,  Ph.D.,  Columbia  College, 
New  York  City. 

"The  problems  involved  arc  so  intricate  as  to  preclude 
the  possibility  of  any  satisfactory  answer  within  a  short 
compass.  I  believe,  liowever,  that  strikes  and  lock-outs  are 
by  no  means  necessary  features  of  the  wage  system.  They 
are  the  first  rude  and  semi-barbarous  attempts  to  settle  by 
sheer  force  the  palpable  evils  of  the  new  economic  regime. 
They  are  perfectly  legitimate,  but  as  a  rule  utterly  unavail- 
ing.    Economic  history,  especially  in  England,  shows  that 


64  THE    LAUOK    PKOULEM. 

the  defects  of  the  factoiy  system,  most  glaringly  at  first, 
are  boiiig  gradually  diminished,  chiefly  owing  to  the  action 
of  the  laborers  themselves,  but  partly  as  a  result  of  the 
growth  of  new  conceptions  as  to  the  relation  between  the 
individual  and  the  State.  Force  and  violence  generally 
precede  dispassionate  judgment  and  order,  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  but  that  the  system  of  arbitration  and  concil- 
iation, as  initiated  by  Mundella  and  Kettle,  is  susceptible 
of  an  immense  development  in  the  future,  even  though  it 
will  not  form  "the  missing  coupling  between  capital  and 
labor."  Trades-unions  have  done  much,  and  will  no  doubt 
accomplish  far  more  in  the  gradual  elevation  of  the  work- 
ing-classes, but  their  sphere  is  circumscribed  by  the  very 
conditions  of  the  problem.  They  are  composed  of  work- 
men, and  as  workmen  pure  and  simple  the  lot  of  the  arti- 
sans cannot  be  materially  altered.  An  effectual  improve- 
ment can  only  be  accomplished  by  some  method  which 
will  insure  to  the  laborers  a  practical  independence,  which 
will  lift  them  as  a  body  out  of  their  position  as  subordi- 
nates, and  make  them  feel  that  they  are  all  equally  re- 
sponsible for  the  evil,  equally  benefited  by  the  good  which 
may  result  from  their  united  efforts. 

"  The  secret  of  the  success  of  the  mediaeval  guilds,  in  the 
period  before  their  decadence,  and  of  the  absence  of  any 
serious  social  struggles,  lies  in  the  fact  that  every  workman 
either  was  or  could  in  time  become  his  own  master.  In 
other  words,  he  enjoyed  both  wages  and  profits,  and  in  this 
character  of  profit-taker  he  kept  pace  with  the  progress  of 
industry.  Modern  attempts,  especially  in  France  (as  evi- 
denced in  the  recent  enquete  of  the  Minister  del  Rube- 
rieur),  have  conclusively  shown  that  the  system  of  indus- 
trial partnership,  when  correctly  applied,  will  result  in 
vastly  increased  gains  to  the  laborer,  and  in  actually  in- 
creased profits  to  the  employer,  while  the  increased  activity 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  55 

of  the  workman  and  the  manifest  interest  of  the  employer 
tend  to  engender  a  nuitual  kindliness  of  feeling  which  ren- 
ders strikes  or  lock-outs  an  occurrence  of  great  rarity. 
Profit-sharing  thus  seems  to  be  dictated  not  only  by  feel- 
ings of  humanity  and  justice,  but  also  by  the  purely  eco- 
nomic considerations  of  increased  gains  to  the  capitalist, 
enhanced  efficiency  and  carefulness  of  the  laborer,  and 
comparative  immunity  from  disastrous  and  expensive  stop- 
pages of  work.  The  great  need  of  the  times  is  to  bring 
the  cogency  of  these  arguments,  re-enforced  by  irrefutable 
facts,  to  the  attention  of  the  employers,  and  a  change  for 
the  better  must  ensue.  Industrial  partnership  is  indeed 
only  a  stepping-stone  to  productive  co-operation.  But  for 
successful  co-operation  certain  qualities  of  mind  and  heart 
are  necessary  which,  it  must  be  confessed,  scarcely  exist  in 
an  adequate  degree  among  the  American  laborers  at  pres- 
ent. With  increased  education,  both  intellectual  and  moral, 
conditions  of  success  may  in  the  future  be  attained,  and  in 
many  branches  of  industry  productive  co-operation  will 
undoubtedly,  some  day,  play  an  important  role.  Every 
effort  should  be  made  to  encourage  the  workmen  in  their 
laudable  endeavors  to  introduce  co-operation;  for  only 
through  the  experience  of  repeated  failures  will  ultimate 
success  be  possible.  For  the  present,  however,  the  interest 
centres  in  the  question  of  industrial  partnerships.  Every 
one  should  study  the  eminently  successful  arrangements  of 
Laroche  Joubert,  at  Angouleme,  or  the  former  attempts  of 
Brewster  &  Co.,  in  New  York,  a  member  of  which  firm 
(Mr.  Britton)  has  declared  himself  to  me  as  thoroughly 
convinced  of  the  feasibility  of  the  scheme,  and  as  satisfied 
with  the  results  in  so  far  as  increased  profits,  enhanced 
efficiency,  and  kindly  intercourse  were  concerned." 


66  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 


Professor  S.  Watekiiouse,  of  the  Washington  University, 
St.  Louis. 

"  Your  inquiries  touch  momentous  issues.  An  equitable 
adjustment  of  the  rehitions  of  Capital  and  Lfibor  is  a  prob- 
lem whose  solution  demands  the  gravest  thought  of  states- 
men and  political  economists.  The  settlement  of  differ- 
ences between  manufacturers  and  workmen  by  means  of 
strikes  is  a  rude  and  costly  process.  It  has  been  stated 
that  the  aggregate  loss  inflicted  upon  Great  Britain  since 
1870  by  these  violent  interruptions  of  productive  industry 
is  more  than  §200,000,000.  Every  great  manufacturing 
nation  loses  millions  annually  by  the  misunderstandings 
that  arise  between  employers  and  their  workmen.  The 
waste  of  property  by  civil  strife  between  Labor  and  Capital 
is  almost  equal  to  the  havoc  of  a  foreign  war.  The  thrift 
of  the  working-classes  and  the  well-being  of  society  imper- 
atively require  the  prevention  of  this  enormous  loss.  A 
reconciliation  of  the  conflicting  interests  of  manufacturers 
and  their  operatives  is  the  difficult  task  which  now  chal- 
lenges the  attention  of  practical  thinkers.  The  history  of 
international  dissensions  encourages  the  belief  that  there 
is  a  way  of  pacifying  industrial  disagreements.  In  former 
ages  a  recourse  to  war  was  the  sole  means  of  settling  royal 
disputes.  The  sword  was  the  nniversal  umpire  of  contest- 
ed rights.  Through  the  slow  lapse  of  centuries  the  prog- 
ress of  civilization  and  enlightened  humanity  has  gradually 
introduced  more  reasonable  methods  of  composing  national 
quarrels,  and  now  governments,  taught  by  the  desolation 
and  miseries  of  war,  have  learned  to  submit  their  claims  to 
peaceful  arbitration.  Many  a  difficulty  which  in  an  earlier 
age  would  have  been  decided  by  a  resort  to  battle,  has  in 
modern  times  been  settled  by  the  bloodless  arts  of  diplo- 
macy.     If  the  discords  of  alien  governments,  imbittercd 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  57 

by  jealousies  and  wrongs,  can  be  barrnonizefl  by  amicable 
reference,  assuredly  mere  business  differences  between  mem- 
bers of  the  same  community  ouglit  to  be  susceptible  of 
peaceful  adjustment.  The  fact  that  such  differences  have 
often  been  reconciled  by  arbitration  proves  the  feasibility 
of  the  plan,  aii<l  strongly  recommends  its  general  adoption. 
It  is  quite  improbable  that  wars  and  strikes  will  ever  be 
wholly  prevented  by  any  device  of  man,  but  their  frequen- 
cy will  be  greatly  reduced  by  the  growing  intelligence  of 
the  civilized  races  and  by  a  clearer  recognition  of  human 
rights. 

"Co-operation  seems  to  be  the  most  effective  means  of 
insuring  harmony  between  Capital  and  Labor.  But  grave 
obstacles  obstruct  its  adoption.  The  successful  conduct  of 
a  large  business  demands  a  high  order  of  talent.  But  an 
able  man  can  make  more  money  by  himself,  and  will  de- 
cline to  share  with  many  the  profits  acquired  by  his  own 
sagacity,  lie  will  claim  the  full  reward  of  the  success 
which  his  foresight  has  won.  But  the  management  of  a 
large  establishment  by  incapable  men  is  almost  certain  to 
result  in  failure.  Hence,  unless  motives  of  philanthropy 
induce  competent  directors  to  sacrifice  for  the  public  bene- 
fit a  part  of  their  possible  profits,  co-operative  associations 
will  have  to  be  content  with  superintendents  of  inferior 
ability.  This  necessity  is  a  source  of  weakness  and  dan- 
ger. But  it  often  happens  that  men  who  are  unable  to 
conduct  a  great  business  can  successfully  manage  a  small 
one,  and  the  history  of  co-operative  organizations  shows 
that  the  smaller  firms  have  quite  uniformly  been  most  pros- 
perous. The  aggregate  transactions  of  these  partnerships 
are  by  no  means  insignificant.  Last  year  the  sales  of  the 
co-operative  stores  of  Great  Britain  amounted  to  more 
than  $125,000,000.  The  English  co-operative  societies  now 
contain  about  650,000  members.   France  and  Germany  rank 


68  THK    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

next  to  Great  Britain  in  tlic  number  and  prosperity  of  tliese 
copartnerships.  In  tlie  United  States  such  associations 
have  been  infrequently  organized  and  rarely  successful. 
But  the  experiments  in  this  country  have  not  been  tried 
under  favorable  conditions  or  competent  management. 
The  education  of  working-men  is  a  prerequisite  to  indus- 
trial reforms.  A  comprehension  of  the  simplest  truths  of 
political  economy  would  dispel  the  senseless  hostility  wliich 
now  exists  between  Capital  and  Labor,  and  teach  manufact- 
urer and  artisan  the  important  precept  that  the  highest 
interests  of  both  depend  upon  a  just  regard  for  the  rights 
of  each.  When  both  parties  distinctly  perceive  that  nei- 
ther can  permanently  flourish  upon  the  ruin  of  the  other, 
and  that  acts  of  injustice  are  sure  ultimately  to  injure  the 
transgressor,  then  proprietors  would  be  willing  to  divide 
their  profits  with  the  hands  which  helped  to  earn  them, 
and  workmen  would  consent  to  adjust  differences  with 
their  employers  by  the  cheap  and  peaceful  agency  of  arbi- 
tration. The  memorable  example  of  Leclaire  teaches  a 
useful  lesson.  After  paying  his  workmen  fair  daily  wages, 
he  divided  among  them  at  the  end  of  the  year  a  certain 
percentage  of  the  profits  proportioned  to  their  technical 
skill  and  length  of  service.  Not  even  a  single  dav's  work 
in  the  course  of  a  year  was  forgotten  in  the  final  reward  of 
labor.  The  effect  upon  his  workmen  was  immediate  and 
striking.  Implicit  trust  at  once  supplanted  unfriendly  dis- 
content. When  the  men  found  that  they  were  to  partici- 
pate in  their  master's  prosperity,  they  became  more  faith- 
ful in  their  work,  more  attentive  to  every  duty,  and  more 
careful  of  the  interests  of  their  employer.  The  same  per- 
sons who  formerly,  hopeless  of  bettering  their  condition, 
lived  reckless  and  improvident  lives,  now,  seeing  a  chance 
of  social  improvement,  became  self-respectful  and  frugal 
of  their  earnings.     The  value  of  the  educational  influence 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.     59 

which  such  a  system  exerts  upon  the  thrift  and  happiness 
of  the  working-classes  is  incalcnhible.  It  is  fortunate  for 
the  welfare  of  a  nation  when  all  the  forces  of  its  industrial 
life  tend  to  the  amelioration  of  society.  The  noble  exam- 
ple of  Leclaire  is  worthy  of  universal  imitation.  There 
are,  then,  three  agencies  whose  joint  action  would  do  much 
to  obviate  the  losses  and  violence  which  spring  from  the 
present  disturbed  relations  of  Capital  and  Labor: 

"1.  Arbitration  —  which  would  settle  disputes  by  the 
awards  of  reason,  allay  the  unfriendly  feelings  which  now 
subsist  between  workmen  and  their  employers,  save  the 
time  and  money  which  are  now  wasted  by  the  arbitrary 
closure  of  manufactories  or  the  ill-advised  withdrawal  of 
operatives,  and  prevent  the  scenes  of  violence  and  outrage 
which  so  often  disgrace  strikes. 

"  2.  Co-operative  stores — which  would  furnish  the  labor- 
ing classes  with  food,  clothing,  and  other  necessaries,  at 
the  lowest  rates,  and  by  reducing  the  cost  of  living  enable 
artisans  to  spend  more  for  the  improvement  of  their  social 
condition. 

"  3.  Co-operative  partnerships — which  would  allow  the 
workmen,  in  addition  to  their  ordinary  wages,  a  definite 
percentage  of  the  profits  in  proportion  to  their  dexterity 
and  number  of  days'  work,  and  which,  by  this  just  and 
humane  recognition  of  their  individual  merits,  would  in- 
spire a  greater  fidelity  to  their  duties,  a  livelier  interest  in 
the  success  of  the  firm,  and  higher  hopes  of  pecuniary 
competence  and  social  elevation.  The  combined  action  of 
these  three  factors  is  the  best  remedy  which  the  business 
experience  of  mankind  has  yet  suggested  for  the  relief  of 
industrial  disorders.  Doubtless,  with  the  lapse  of  years,  a 
constantly  increasing  number  of  manufacturers  will  prefer 
to  distribute  a  share  of  their  annua!  j)r()fits  rather  than  in- 
cur the  ruinous  losses  which  strikes  inflict,  and  operatives 


60  TUK    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

will  gradually  be  more  disposed  to  submit  tlieir  claims  to 
impartial  arbitratiou  than  to  endure  the  privations  which 
their  withdrawal  from  work  would  cause.  As  an  insur- 
ance against  damage  by  strikes,  an  allowance  to  the  hands 
of  a  portion  of  the  profits  would  presumably  be  a  cheap 
and  wise  investment.  But  even  if  capitalists  are  at  present 
unmindful  of  the  claims  of  justice  and  humanity,  the  new 
system  will  be  eventually  introduced  by  the  growing  re- 
quirements of  popular  opinion. 

"  Public  sentiment  is  one  of  the  strongest  social  forces. 
It  steadily  and  irresistibly  modifies  ethics,  laws,  and  political 
institutions,  and  as  soon  as  its  enlightened  voice  demands 
industrial  reforms,  the  proposed  concessions  will  promptly 
be  made." 

Professor  J.  B.  Claek,  Smith  College,  Northampton,  Mass. 

"  I  willingly  answer,  in  so  far  as  I  am  able,  the  questions 
sent  to  me,  and  shall  be  greatly  interested  in  the  results  of 
your  inquiries  in  other  directions. 

"  1.  I  should  say  that  a  concentration  of  capital  which 
makes  a  lock-out  possible,  involves,  as  a  consequence,  the 
organization  of  labor  which  makes  strikes  possible ;  that 
this  condition  offers  the  alternative  of  actual  strikes  and 
lock-outs  on  the  one  hand,  and  arbitration  on  the  other; 
that  the  absence  of  efficient  machinery  for  arbitration  is  an 
evidence  of  crudeness  in  the  general  organization  of  indus- 
try, and  precipitates  actual  strikes  ;  and  that,  with  progress 
in  this  direction,  with  a  development  of  efficient  wage  tri- 
bunals, will  come  the  legitimate  use  of  the  strike  and  lock- 
out, namely,  that  of  something  to  be  kept  in  remote  view, 
as  a  last  resort,  and  seldom  appealed  to  in  actual  practice. 

"  2.  I  should  say  yes. 

"  3.  I  should  say  unhesitatingly  yes.  Arbitration  is  in 
itself  an  appeal  to  equity  and  a  departure  from  the  com- 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.     61 

petitive  principle.  Tlie  cornpetition  wliicb  is  the  basis  of 
the  orthodox  political  economy  is  already  a  thing  of  the 
past  in  the  sphere  of  wage  adjustments.  It  has  been  viti- 
ated by  combinations  on  both  sides.  True  competition 
gave  a  rude  approximation  to  justice  in  assigning  the  re- 
wards of  industry.  The  wreck  of  a  competitive  system, 
with  the  true  competition  left  out,  approaches  more  and 
more  to  the  ignoble  condition  from  which  civilization 
emerged.  It  needs  powerful  agencies  for  an  appeal  to  jus- 
tice in  assigning  the  rewards  of  industry.  That  can  be 
most  easily  and  immediately  made  by  arbitration  ;  but  the 
result  promises  to  be  less  satisfactory  than  that  which 
would  follow  from  a  change  in  the  fundamental  relation  of 
employers  and  employed.  The  wage  system,  from  which 
the  redeeming  element  has  departed,  ought  to  give  place, 
in  many  industries,  to  a  system  based  partly  on  the  co-op- 
erative principle.* 

"  4.  This  remedy  seems  to  me  to  come  next  in  time  after 
arbitration,  and  to  be  an  improvement  upon  it.  That  it 
will  be  universally  adopted  is  of  course  more  than  doubt- 
ful ;  but  that  it  will  do  an  extensive  and  beneficent  work 
can  hardly  be  doubtful. 

"  5.  Under  favorable  circumstances,  undoubtedly  yes. 
These  circumstances  have  not  been  present  in  a  majority 
of  cases,  and  failures  have  been  numerous.     These  failures 

*  "Co-operation  seeks  no  plunder,  causes  no  disturbances  in  society, 
gives  no  trouble  to  statesmen,  enters  into  no  secret  societies,  needs 
no  trades-union  to  protect  its  interests,  contemplates  no  violence, 
subverts  no  order,  envies  no  dif^nity,  accepts  no  gift  nor  asks  for 
any  favor,  keeps  no  terms  with  the  idle  and  breaks  no  faith  with 
the  industrious.  It  has  its  hand  in  no  man's  pocket,  and  does  not 
intend  that  any  hands  shall  remain  long  or  comfortal)ly  in  its  own. 
It  means  self-help,  8elf-dei)endencc,  and  sucli  share  of  the  common 
competence  as  labor  shall  earn  or  thought  can  win." — G.  J.  IIol- 

YOAKE. 


62  THE    LABOR    PHODLEM. 

are,  for  tlic  most  part,  accounted  for,  and  their  causes  arc 
not  perinaiiont.  In  proportion  as  arbitration  and  indus- 
trial partnersliip  prove  successful,  tliey  lessen  the  induce- 
ment to  full  co-operation,  and  what  was  said  of  the  former 
remedy  holds  true  of  this:  it  may  never  be  universally 
adopted,  and  may  not  soon  be  extensively  introduced,  but 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  it  has  an  important  and  ex- 
tensive work  before  it." 

Professor  Henky  C.  Adams,  Lecturer  on  Political  Economy  in 
the  University  of  Michigan  and  CarneU  University. 

"  In  replying  to  the  questions  asked  it  will  be  possible 
for  me  to  state  merely  my  own  views  without  attempting 
defence  or  explanation. 

"  1.  Strikes  and  lock-outs  appear  to  me  to  be  an  inevita- 
ble result  of  industrial  progress  carried  forward  upon  the 
present  form  of  labor  organization.  There  can  be  no  per- 
manent solution  of  the  labor  problem  so  long  as  the  wages 
system  is  maintained. 

"  2.  Arbitration  is  not  the  missing  coupling  between  La- 
bor and  Capital,  but  is  the  thing  for  which  at  the  present 
time  it  is  practical  that  working-men  should  strive.  Its 
establishment  is  the  first  step  towards  the  overthrow  of 
the  wages  system.  Working-men  are  right  in  demanding 
it;  employers  also,  if  they  judge  wholly  from  the  stand- 
point of  their  personal  interests,  are  logical  and  clear-headed 
in  opposing  it. 

"  3.  I  think  we  may  hope  to  discover  some  more  satis- 
factory and  equitable  basis  for  the  division  of  products, 
because  such  a  discovery  is  essential  to  the  further  devel- 
opment of  our  Christian  civilization. 

"  4.  Yes,  the  remedy  lies  in  the  direction  of  industrial 
partnerships ;  but  should  industries,  breaking  away  from 
the  wages  system,  move  in  this  direction,  the  momentum 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.     63 

acquired  would  carry  them  on  to  industrial  federation. 
The  difference  between  these  two  is  that  the  former  ad- 
mits of  intense  individualism  in  its  interpretation  of  pro- 
prietary relations,  while  the  latter  curtails  in  part  the  right 
of  the  present  possessing  classes.  Industrial  federation  does 
not,  like  industrial  partnerships,  rest  upon  the  charity  or 
self-interest  of  isolated  employers,  but  upon  legal  rights 
that  can  be  enforced  in  the  courts. 

"  5.  Co-operation  is  good  enough  in  its  way,  but  as  a  prac- 
tical solution  of  the  labor  problem  it  counts  for  little." 

Professor  Arthur  T.  Hadley,  of  Yale  College,  and  Commis- 
sioner of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  of  Connecticut. 

"  1.  To  a  certain  extent,  yes,  as  long  as  the  workman  is 
a  mere  receiver  of  wages. 

"  2.  I  think  not.  It  is  often  a  good  way  of  settling  trou- 
bles, but  it  does  not  remove  the  cause  of  the  trouble.  We 
need  prevention  rather  than  cure. 

"3.  Yes. 

"4.  Probably. 

'*  5.  Not  as  the  term  has  been  commonly  understood.  In 
the  complicated  industries  of  to-day  it  is  almost  out  of  the 
question  for  a  body  of  men  to  get  together  and  run  a  large 
business  on  democratic  principles.  We  raust  have  efficient 
leadership  and  unquestioned  authority  —  one-man  power. 
And  the  men  who  are  competent  to  wield  that  power  are 
to  a  large  extent  the  men  who  are  in  authority  to-day.  If  co- 
operation is  to  be  a  success  it  must  be  under  the  leadership 
of  such  men.  And  I  think  that  the  events  of  the  next  few 
years  will  perhaps  teach  our  present  business  leaders  the 
necessity  of  some  system  of  co-operation.  Each  year  makes 
them  in  one  sense  more  powerful ;  but  at  the  same  time  it 
makes  them  more  d<'pendent  u[ion  the  good-will  of  iheir 
workmen  as  a  body." 


64  THE    LAUOK    I'KUULEM. 


Profifisor  E.  J.  J.VMES,  of  the   Whart/>n  School  of  FinariM  and 
Economy,  Univcraiti/  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

"An  adequate  answer  to  any  one  of  your  questions 
would  take  up  far  more  space  than  you  propose  to  allot  to 
tlie  wlii>le  discussion.  I  take  pleasure,  however,  in  sending 
you  a  brief  statement  of  the  conclusions  to  which  my  study 
and  observation  have  forced  me  to  come.  I  think  that  pro- 
ductive co-operation  is  practicable  in  the  United  States. 
Indeed  it  has  been,  in  certain  places  and  under  peculiar 
conditions,  a  decided  success.  I  do  not  think,  however, 
that  either  American  or  iluropean  experience  in  this  direc- 
tion has  been  so  successful  as  to  warrant  the  opinion  that 
it  can  be  introduced  generally  enough  to  be  considered  a 
satisfactory  solution  of  the  labor  problem.  Nor  do  I  think 
that  any  system  of  industrial  partnership  —  successful  as 
some  of  the  instances  have  been — promises  much  hope  of 
permanent  and  wide-spread  relief  under  our  present  eco- 
nomic system.  I  would  say,  liovvever,  that  I  firmly  believe 
that  the  only  means  of  solving  this  problem  lies  in  active 
and  long-continued  experimentation.  Consequently  I  greet 
with  pleasure  every  attempt  at  productive  co-operation,  or 
at  a  fair  system  of  profit-sharing,  which  also  implies  loss- 
sharing,  if  it  is  to  be  permanent  and  general.  In  arbitra- 
tion, on  the  other  hand,  as  a  means  of  immediate  relief  and 
of  permanent  advantage  in  various  ways,  I  am  a  thorough 
believer.  I  think  it  sliould  be  recognized  in  law  by  pro- 
viding for  the  establishment  of  boards  of  arbiters,  whose 
decisions  sliould  have  a  binding  force.  No  good  can  come 
from  our  persistently  closing  our  eyes  to  patent  facts  of 
our  social  life.  Our  laws  and  law-makers  at  present  pro- 
ceed on  the  supposition  of  a  state  of  perfect  freedom  on 
the  part  of  every  individual  laborer  and  employer,  whereas, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  are  both  usually  (and  the  excep- 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.     G5 

tions  are  becoming  fewer  every  day)  members  of  some  or- 
ganization or  other,  which  practically  dictates  to  each  what 
he  must  do  or  leave  undone.  These  organizations  are  facts 
with  which  we  have  to  reckon,  and  as  they  are  powerful 
for  mischief,  they  may  also  become  powerful  for  good  un- 
der a  proper  system  of  public  control.  Arbitration  has  the 
great  advantage  of  subjecting  the  acts  of  the  parties  to  it 
to  the  efficient  and  powerful  control  of  an  energetic  public 
opinion.  It  recognizes  indirectly  what  is  too  often  over- 
looked, that  the  interests  at  stake  are  not  merely  those  of  the 
laborer  and  the  employer,  but  also  those  of  the  community 
at  large.  The  latter  has  such  a  great  stake  in  the  contest 
that  it  cannot  aflEord  to  stand  idly  by  and  permit  the  former 
to  disturb  society  to  its  foundations  and  destroy  in  their 
struggle  the  very  conditions  of  sound  economic  progress. 
The  real  solution  lies,  however,  I  think,  back  of  all  this. 
Arbitration,  profit-sharing,  productive  co-operation,  are  all 
expedients — makeshifts,  I  had  almost  called  them — which 
may  help  tide  over  a  crisis  in  national  industry,  but  which 
cannot  be  relied  upon  to  keep  permanent  peace  and  order. 
Our  only  hope  of  attaining  to  this  lies  in  the  establishment 
of  a  system  which  shall  not  unduly  favor,  as  our  system 
docs  at  present,  the  combination  of  enormous  capital  in  a 
few  hands,  and  cheap  labor  against  the  combination  of  small 
capital  and  intelligence.  To  develop  this  point  adequately 
would  take  much  time  and  space.  I  would  only  call  at- 
tention to  one  set  of  forces,  which,  to  my  mind,  cannot 
much  longer  be  allowed  to  work  unchecked  without  seri- 
ously aggravating  the  problem.  I  mean  those  forces  which 
control  in  the  management  of  our  most  important  means 
of  transportation,  viz.,  the  railroads.  Under  our  present 
system  of  railroad  economy  it  is  the  mere  whim  or  caprice 
of  a  railroad  president,  or  at  best  his  regard  for  his  own 
pecuniary  interest,  not  the  natural  condition  of  the  country, 


66  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

which  determines  whether  an  industry  shall  i^row  np  in  A 
or  B,  and  it  often  ends  in  planting  an  industry  hundreds 
of  miles  from  its  natural  and  proper  locality.  The  system 
has  contributed  to  building  up  a  few  great  centres  so  rap- 
idly, fit  the  expense  oftentimes  of  the  inlying  country,  that 
all  economic  and  social  conditions  have  become  highly  ar- 
tificial, with  the  result  of  enormously  aggravating  the  dif- 
ficulties of  the  labor  problem.  The  remedy  for  such  a 
complicated  disease  cannot  of  course  be  a  simple  one.  But 
it  must  include  as  a  constituent  some  antidote  to  the  poi- 
sonous influences  of  abitrary  discrimination.  No  system 
of  co-operation  or  profit-sharing,  or  even  abitration  on  a 
large  scale,  can  succeed  until  it  is  possible  to  make  some 
estimate  of  the  railroad  tax,  which  is  in  many  cases  de- 
structive no  less  by  its  amount  than  by  its  uncertainty." 

Professor  George  B.  Newcomb,  College  of  the  City  of  Neio 
York. 

''  Co-operative  production  by  associations  of  working-men, 
experience  has  shown,  is  apt  to  prove  weak  at  the  centre. 
A  great  business  at  least  requires,  as  does  government, 
unity  and  strength  in  the  executive.  A  regime  of  many 
masters  cannot  compete  for  efficiency  with  the  old  system 
of  'master  and  man.'  Competition  has  brought  to  the 
front  of  industrial  affairs  the  modern  '  captain  of  industry,' 
and  he  seems  to  me  to,  in  the  main,  hold  the  key  of  the 
present  situation  as  regards  the  difficulties  and  strained  re- 
lations between  Labor  and  Capital.  Would  not  much  of  the 
diflBculty  disa[)pear  insensibly  with  the  growing  into  favor 
among  employers  generally  of  a  more  liberal  and  far-sight- 
ed policy  in  dealing  with  labor  than  has  usually  prevailed? 
A  serious  error,  too  often  committed  by  the  employing 
class,  is  that  of  reckoning  with  human  labor  as  with  their 
raw  materials  and  machinery.     But  commodities  and  serv- 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.     67 

ices  are  two  things  very  different  in  their  nature  and  their 
laws,  however  economists  may  persist  in  subjecting  them 
both  alike  to  the  '  rules  of  the  market.'  The  demands  nei- 
ther of  equity  nor  expediency  are  satisfied  by  any  business 
method  which  treats  men  as  the  merely  accidental  and  tem- 
porary instruments  of  others'  enterprises  of  production. 
Figures  show  that  the  best  paid  labor  is  the  most  produc- 
tive and  the  cheapest.  Common-sense  tells  us  that  a  day's 
labor  is  not  an  absolute  quantity  like  a  pound  of  cotton, 
but  depends  for  its  value  upon  the  good-will  and  nervous 
force  and  heart  put  into  it.  As  to  hours  of  labor,  what  is 
gained  in  employing  the  'plant'  as  many  hours  as  possible 
may  be  lost  in  fogging  out  the  hands  and  brains  which 
must  manage  and  watch  the  machinery.  Considerate  treat- 
ment and  reasonable  expectations  encouraged  for  the  fut- 
ure of  the  worker  will  also  give  '  more  power  to  the  elbow.' 

"  I  would  therefore  say  to  the  employer,  and  with  a  con- 
fidence the  grounds  of  which  I  have  only  been  able  to  hint 
at  above,  Give  the  man  you  think  worthy  to  help  execute 
your  plans  the  best  chance  you  can  of  being  healthy  and 
happy  in  the  service ;  pay  him  not  the  least  you  can  get 
biin,  for,  but  as  liberally  as  you  can,  and  then  do  not  close 
acpiunts  with  him  when  you  have  paid  him  his  week's 
^ges.  When  the  lapse  of  a  suitable  period  allows  an  es- 
timate of  profits  to  be  made,  after  setting  aside  interest,  in- 
surance on  risk,  and  generous  compensation  for  the  brain 
and  will  work  of  the  management,  let  the  working-man 
share  some  fair  portion  of  what  he  has  helped  to  make,  in 
the  ratio  of  each  one's  service  as  measured  by  his  wages. 

"It  is  not  mere  theory,  but  rather  the  spirit  of  the  I)cst 
practice,  which  supports  these  views  of  the  duty  and  inter- 
est of  employer.  In  fact  it  is  hard  economic  theory  which 
has  too  rigidly  regulated  in  this  industrial  age  the  relations 
between  employers  and  employed  on  an  artificial  type,  re- 


68  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

plucintT  the  more  natural  and  kindly  relations  existinr^  in 
the  old  time  between  master  and  man.  Liberal  and  far-sight- 
ed dealing  with  men,  in  recognition  of  their  human  nature, 
wherever  and  to  whatever  extent  practised,  is  certain  to 
meet  with  its  reward  in  the  confidence  it  awakens  and  the 
effectiveness  of  the  co-operation  elicited." 

D.  II.  Wheeler,  LL.D.,  President  of  Alleglieny  College,  Mead- 
ville,  Pa. 

"  1.  The  wage  system  seems  to  run  naturally  into  strikes 
and  lock-outs.  It  is  practically  impossible  that  the  employ- 
ers and  the  employed  should  always  agree  about  wages,  and 
each  party  will  naturally  exert  its  power  in  order  to  enforce 
its  claims.  There  is  an  influence  outside  of  the  wage  mar- 
ket which  seems  to  be  at  present  very  active  in  causing 
labor  troubles.  The  competition  in  the  sale  of  goods 
tends  to  deprive  the  employer  of  freedom  to  deal  with  the 
question  of  wages  as  one  of  the  division  of  profits  between 
himself  and  his  hands.  He  must  produce  as  cheaply  as 
others  or  he  cannot  produce  at  all.  Competition  in  goods 
markets  seems  to  cause  the  disturbances  in  wages.  Wages 
are  subject  to  a  competition  in  both  materials  and  goods. 
The  power  of  one  manufacturer  to  make  a  gain  (though  it 
be  only  temporary)  by  forcing  down  wages  in  order  to  un- 
dersell his  rivals,  seems  to  be  one  source  of  the  evil.  Wages 
forced  down  in  one  mill  tend  to  make  a  standard  for  all. 
This,  however,  is  only  one  source  of  the  evil.  The  general 
tendency  in  competition  is  towards  a  lower  price,  and 
wages  are  carried  down  by  that  movement.  The  goal  of 
this  race  is  the  lowest  rate  of  wages  this  side  of  starvation. 
The  competition  of  laborers  with  each  other  does  not  ap- 
pear to  be  conspicuous  in  the  fall  of  wages — that  is  to  say, 
the  cause  of  the  fall  is  found  in  the  goods  market  rather 
than  in  the  labor  market.     While  the  struggle  to  undersell 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.     69 

competitors  exists,  the  pressure  to  underpay  laborers  will 
continue — that  is  to  say,  the  manufacturer  will  be  able  to 
pay  less  and  less. 

"  2.  Arbitration  is  an  excellent  palliative.  But  it  cannot 
reach  the  cause  of  the  evil  unless  it  can  be  applied  to  the 
goods  market.  If  products  are  sold  under  a  rule  of  free 
competition  which  tends  to  lower  prices,  labor  must  be  sub- 
ject to  the  same  rule,  and  laborers  must  be  expected  to 
resist  in  all  possible  ways  the  force  which  is  pressing  them 
down.  This  force  is  not  the  greed  of  the  individual  em- 
ployer; he  is  as  helpless  as  the  laborer  and  about  equally 
certain  of  being  crushed  under  the  wheel  of  competition. 

"3.  We  may,  like  charity,  'hope  all  things;'  the  world 
is  probably  not  going  to  the  dogs  through  the  destructive 
struggles  to  sell  goods  at  prices  which  mean  starvation 
wages. 

"  In  attaching  importance  to  the  struggle  to  undersell  I 
recognize  that  it  is  only  one  of  several  causes  of  distress. 
Facts  are  the  best  teachers.  In  the  Monongahela  coal 
mines  some  miners  receive  two  cents  a  bushel,  some  two 
and  one-half  cents,  and  some  three  cents,  the  difference 
depending  on  the  length  of  the  contract.  On  a  ten- 
months'  contract  miners  will  accept  two  cents  a  bushel. 
This  fact  looks  ten  ways  into  political  economy.  Let  me 
add  that  industrial  partnerships  would  probably  fail  through 
the  competition  of  the  goods  markets,  if  there  were  no 
other  difficulty." 

G.  M.  Steele,  LL.D.,  Principal  Wesleyan  Academy,  Wilbra- 
ham,  Mass. 

"  Of  the  five  questions  which  you  set  forth,  the  answer 
to  the  first  throe  arc  partially  implic<l  in  those  of  the  last 
two,  consequently  the  former  will  bo  treated  more  briefly. 

"  1.  They  are  probably  not  necessary  in  an  ideal  opera- 


VO  THE    LABOK    I'UOBLEM. 

tion  of  Ihc  system.  Bat  human  nature  being  what  it  is, 
and  the  state  of  intelligence  and  the  moral  dispositions  of 
both  laborer  and  employer  being  what  they  are,  strikes 
and  lock-outs  are  likely  to  exist,  at  least  for  some  time  to 
come.  Still,  not  only  may  the  evils  resulting  from  these 
devices  be  greatly  mitigated,  but  these  mistakes  may  be 
gradually  substituted  by  those  which  are  more  rational. 

"  2.  Arbitration  is  unquestionably  of  very  great  value, 
and  should  be  resorted  to  much  more  frequently  than  it  is. 
Still  it  is  not  a  perfect  method  of  settling  difficulties  of  the 
kind  implied.  In  many  cases  of  attempted  settlement  by 
this  measure  there  is  a  considerable  temptation  to  com- 
promise so  as  not  to  give  too  much  offence  to  either  party, 
and  frequently,  or  at  least  occasionally,  this  is  liable  to  be 
done  when  strict  equity  would  require  that  no  concession 
be  made  by  one  of  the  parties,  the  claim  of  the  other  be- 
ing wholly  baseless.  Of  course  such  concession  may  be 
better  for  both  parties  than  continued  strife  and  antago- 
nism, and  certainly  than  a  lock-out  or  strike.  But  the  best 
thing  in  all  such  cases  is  that  actual  justice  be  done,  whether 
it  coincides  with  the  claims  of  a  particular  party  or  not. 

"  3.  I  am  hopeful  of  some  more  satisfactory  method, 
but  I  am  not  sanguine  about  any  particular  method  hither- 
to proposed.  The  problem  is  how  to  divide  the  net  prod- 
uct or  its  equivalent  so  that  each  producer  shall  receive  in 
proportion  to  the  productive  result  of  his  labor,  capital 
being  regarded  as  pre-existent  labor.  It  is  obviously  im- 
possible that  this  can  be  determined  with  anything  like 
precision.  There  are  many  elements  of  the  problem  which 
are  so  concealed  that  they  are  not  likely  to  be  taken  ac- 
count of,  and  many  more  which,  if  obvious,  are  reckoned 
as  unappreciable,  which  yet  have  in  the  aggregate  no  small 
determining  force.  It  is  not  diflBcult,  at  least  in  many  in- 
stances, to  see  the  inequality  of  the  division,  and  to  see  on 


SEVEKAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  71 

which  side  it  lies;  but  while  much  can  be  done  towards  re- 
storing the  balance,  this  restoration  will  at  most  only  ap- 
proximate justice.  Still,  even  this  would  be  a  great  gain 
and  well  worth  striving  for.  As  to  what  methods  should 
be  pursued  can  best  be  partially  considered  under  the  re- 
maining questions. 

"  4,  The  expression  '  industrial  partnership '  is  some- 
what ambiguous,  and  is  sometimes  confounded  with  co- 
operation, which  is  to  be  considered  under  the  next  ques- 
tion. It  is  desirable  to  keep  the  two  entirely  distinct. 
Without  entering  at  present  into  the  consideration  of  the 
latter  I  may  be  permitted  to  say,  that  by  industrial  part- 
nership I  understand  a  system  under  which,  while  regular 
and  customary  wages  are  paid  as  though  there  was  nothing 
further  contemplated,  it  is  also  agreed  that  after  a  certain 
amount  of  the  net  product  has  been  received  as  compensa- 
tion to  the  employer,  the  remainder  shall  be  divided  among 
the  employes  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  wages  earned 
by  each.  This  system  appears  to  me  to  be  feasible,  ap- 
proximately just,  and  calculated  to  promote  harmony  be- 
tween employer  and  employes,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
greatly  tend  to  the  increase  of  production.  The  advantages 
appear  to  me  to  be  as  follows:  1st.  There  will  be  a  definite 
knowledge  of  the  amount  of  profit  actually  coming  to  the 
employer.  The  very  fact  that  this  is  an  unknown  quantity 
is  often  an  element  of  evil.  2d.  The  interest  of  both 
parties  will  be  accordant  instead  of  antagonistic.  Both 
will  be  desirous  of  making  the  business  as  profitable  as 
possible.  There  will  be  less  waste,  less  loitering,  less  slight- 
ing of  work  and  less  expense  of  oversight;  hence  a  dimi- 
nution of  expense  and  an  increase  of  net  product.  3d. 
There  will  be  fewer  occasions  for  strikes  and  lock-outs,  witli 
all  their  attendant  evils. 

"  I  do  not  presume  for  a  moment  that  this  wouhl  be  a 


72  THE    LABOR    PUOHLEM. 

perfect  cure  for  all  the  faults  of  the  present  system.  Cer- 
tain objections  might  easily  be  urged  against  it.  But  to 
my  mind  it  is  the  most  practicable  and  satisfactory  remedy 
for  existing  evils  which  has  hitherto  been  devised. 

"5,  Not,  as  it  appears  to  me,  to  any  considerable  ex- 
tent. Something  in  the  very  nature  of  things  militates 
against  it.  For  one  thing  it  involves  the  abrogation  of  the 
office  of  the  employer.  Most  economists  have  strangely 
overlooked  this  office,  so  important  to  the  interests  of  both 
laborers  and  capitalists,  and  to  consumers  as  well.  The 
employer  is  often  confounded  with  the  capitalist.  But  the 
two  are  generally  distinct.  Very  frequently  the  employer 
has  no  capital  of  his  own.  His  function  is  to  bring  to- 
gether capital  and  labor.  The  ideal  employer  is  one  who 
knows  how  to  organize  his  labor  forces  so  as  to  get  not 
merely  the  largest  product,  but  to  get  this  with  the  least 
outlay  on  the  part  of  the  laborer  as  well  as  the  capitalist. 
He  must  know  how  to  combine  men  and  to  distribute  the 
work  to  be  done.  He  must  be  a  good  judge  of  material, 
have  skill  in  buying,  quick  perception  of  the  varying  wants 
of  the  public,  an  eye  for  machinery  and  possible  improve- 
ments in  it,  and  the  kind  of  buildings  conducive  to  the  end 
in  view,  as  well  as  to  the  comfort  and  health  of  the  work- 
men. Such  a  man  does  not  grow  rich  at  the  expense  of 
any  other  parties;  but  he  grows  rich,  if  at  all,  while  at  the 
same  time  enal>ling  both  laborer  and  capitalist  to  receive 
larger  results  from  their  outlay  than  they  otherwise  would. 

"  Of  course  no  employer  is  perfect.  Many  are  incompe- 
tent, dishonest,  overbearing,  and  unfit  for  such  a  position. 
Still,  I  apprehend  that  this  is  an  agency  which  cannot  be 
dispensed  with  without  evil  consequences  to  all  parties,  and 
not  the  least  of  all  to  the  laborer. 

"  Now  this  functionary  is  not  one  that  can  be  made  to 
order,  or  that  will  spring  into  being  as  the  result  of  an  elec- 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.      73 

tion.  Here  is  one  great  obstacle  to  co-operative  produc- 
tion. It  involves  the  dismissal  of  the  employer  as  a  factor 
in  production.  It  is  true  the  vacancy  thus  created  is  ex- 
pected to  be  filled  so  far  as  it  is  necessary  from  the  co- 
operators.  Undoubtedly  the  aim  would  be  to  select  some 
one  who  has  the  qualities  I  have  enumerated  as  essential 
in  the  employer.  But  the  judgment  of  fifty  or  one  hun- 
dred or  more  men,  a  large  proportion  of  whom  would  neces- 
sarily be  unfamiliar  with  the  essentials  of  business  manage- 
ment, would  be  very  likely  to  go  wrong.  Then,  again,  the 
manager  so  selected,  whether  from  among  the  co-operating 
members  or  outside,  would  not  be  willing  to  assume  the 
care  and  responsibility  of  such  a  position  for  the  compen- 
sation of  an  ordinary  laborer:  this  would  bring  back  in 
large  measure  the  evil  of  an  employer. 

"  It  may  be  asked,  why  cannot  a  combination  of  work- 
men appoint  a  manager  who  shall  take  the  place  of  an  em- 
ployer as  well  as  a  combination  of  capitalists  ?  There  are 
several  difficulties  in  the  way.  I  mention  but  one.  In 
ordinary  joint-stock  companies  it  is  comparatively  easy  to 
find  a  considerable  number  of  men  who  by  reason  of  having 
been  themselves  employers  are  well  fitted  to  be  directors 
of  the  enterprise ;  their  judgment  in  all  business  matters 
would  be  decidedly  superior  to  that  of  average  men,  whether 
laborers  or  otherwise.  These  would  select  the  immediate 
managers,  who  together  with  themselves  would  exercise  the 
functions  of  the  employer.  A  company  so  organized  would 
be  likely  to  succeed  where  one  composed  wholly  of  labor- 
ers or  small  capitalists  would  be  likely  to  fail. 

"These  seem  to  me  to  be  some  of  the  reasons  why  pro- 
ductive co-operation  is  not  likely  to  prove  successful. 
There  is  another  method  which  I  think  would,  to  some  ex- 
tent at  least,  avoid  both  the  objections  above  mentioned, 
and  the  evils  incident  to  the  present  system.     It  would  be 


74  THE    LAHOU    rUOULEM, 

a  co?iil>ination  of  co-operation  and  copartnership  by  per- 
mittincj  laborers  to  own  sliares  in  the  joint  stock  companies, 
making  the  shares  small  enongh  for  this  purpose,  and 
specially  encouraging  the  investment,  and  at  the  same  time 
allowing  the  principle  of  sharing  in  the  profits  as  before 
described  to  prevail." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

A  SYMPOSIUM  ON   SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE   LABOR 

qVESTlO'ii— Continued. 

VIEWS    OF    MANUFACTURERS. 

C.  H.  Spaulding,  Vice-president  and  Secretary  of  the  Spaulding 
Iron  Company,  Brilliant,  0. 

"  1.  No.  They  grow  out  of  a  grasping  spirit  which  is 
not  confined  to  the  employer,  and  incorrect  estimates, 
made  by  or  for  organized  labor,  of  the  profits  accruing  to 
the  employer  on  account  of  the  skilfulness  or  fidelity,  or 
both,  of  workmen. 

"2.  Intelligent,  disinterested  arbitration  could  do  much 
to  settle  disputes.  But  where  is  that  to  be  found  ?  In  the 
recent  long- continued  strike  of  the  nailers,  where  could 
disinterested  persons  be  found  who  would  take  a  broad 
view,  embracing  every  point  involved,  and  render  a  just 
decision  ? 

"3.  The  basis  of  a  division  of  the  profits  necessarily  in- 
volves a  division  of  the  losses,  which  are  often  considerable, 
and  are  never  considered  by  the  workman,  unless  he  is  also 
interested  as  a  stockholder.  When  he  sustains  the  dual 
relation  of  employer  and  employe,  it  is  often  easy,  especial- 
ly in  times  of  general  depression,  for  him  to  see  that  the 
latter  is  the  surer,  safer,  and  more  agreeable,  as  well  as 
more  profitable,  situation. 

"4.  Business  enterprises  require  for  success,  primarily, 
capital  and  commercial  standing.  No  concern  can  hope 
for  success  without  a  fair  basis  of  cash  and  character.     If 


76  THE    LADOR    PROBLEM. 

workmen,  or  workinon  and  capitalists  comMnccI,  liavini:;  a 
sufficient  amount  of  the  requisites  named,  clioose  to  estab- 
lish a  business  upon  the  '  mutual  participation  '  plan,  their 
success  or  failure  may  depend  upon  a  number  of  things  not 
contemplated  by  your  questions, 

"5.  'Productive  co-operation '  is  not  impracticable  in 
the  United  States,  but  its  success  is  becoming  more  and. 
more  problematical  by  reason  of  the  unfairness  of  men, 
who  through  their  short-sightedness  seem  ever  ready  to 
grasp  at  every  seeming  advantage  in  favor  of  capital  on 
tiie  one  hand  or  labor  on  the  other,  and  for  the  sake  of 
a  mere  temporary  advantage  are  ever  willing  to  destroy 
every  reciprocally  useful  business  tie.  Prescription  :  com- 
mon honor,  careful  inquiry,  horse  sense,  equal  parts,  large 
doses." 

Gaulbekt,  McFadden  &  Casket,  FairJiiU  Forge  and  Rolling 
Mill,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

"  We  have  a  sliding  scale,  and  by  giving  the  men  a  slight 
advantage  it  seems  to  give  them  entire  satisfaction,  as  we 
have  had  no  trouble  since  July  24,  1880,  when  they  went 
from  a  ten  weeks'  strike  to  work  on  that  date.  The  scale 
was  arranged  and  agreed  upon  by  a  committee  appointed 
from  either  interest,  and  we  have  no  doubt  if  other  manu- 
facturers would  do  likewise  a  very  great  deal  of  the  annoy- 
ance and  loss  sustained  on  either  side  could  and  would  be 
avoided." 

B.  C.  VosE,  Esq.,  Treasurer  of  the  Bay  State  Iron  Company, 
Boston,  Mass. 

"  1.  I  answer,  No. 

"  2.  I  think  if  a  commission  of  arbitration  could  be  es- 
tablished fairly,  representing  both  interests,  and  they  had 
the  power  to  make  a  decision  that  should  be  binding,  that 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.      77 

most  of  the  difficulties  could  be  amicably  and  fairly  ad- 
justed. 

"  3.  I  answer,  Yes. 

"4  and  5.  I  am  very  mucli  in  doubt." 

Blackmer  &  Post,  Sewer-pipe  Manufacturers,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

"  In  our  business  we  Lave  no  trouble  from  strikes,  be- 
cause the  number  of  skilled  workmen  employed  is  very 
limited.  In  our  judgment,  strikes  and  lock-outs  are  an  un- 
avoidable feature  of  the  present  wage  system.  Arbitration 
is  a  temporary  remedy  at  best,  for  the  elements  of  discord 
and  disagreement  exist  always  between  employers  and  em- 
ployes. Where  large  numbers  of  workmen  are  under  one 
management  we  do  not  think  any  plan  of '  industrial  part- 
nership '  possible  whereby  all  concerned  in  the  production 
of  any  article  shall  be  mutually  interested  in  the  profit  or 
loss  resulting  from  its  sale.  It  is  an  impossibility  to  recon- 
cile so  many  discordant  elements.  We  see  no  remedy  for 
the  case  in  this  generation." 

Charles  RrooELY,  Esq.,  President  of  tlie  Springfield  {III.)  Iron 
Company,  and  alio  of  the  Ellsworth  Coal  Company. 

"  As  it  seems  to  me,  the  dissatisfied  feeling  among  the 
working-classes  is  what  we  always  witness  in  periods  of  de- 
pression in  business.  There  are  special  causes  of  trouble 
in  many  of  the  different  industries,  but  the  discontent  is 
more  manifest  of  late  because  the  times  have  pinched  all 
of  them.  We  are  also  just  now  passing  from  the  condition 
of  a  new  country,  with  a  sparser  population  and  undevel- 
oped resources,  to  that  of  an  old  one,  with  a  vedundant 
population,  and  with  all  the  appliances  in  the  way  of  plant, 
money,  transportation,  skilled  labor,  etc.,  necessary  to  sup- 
ply ourselves  with  about  all  of  the  manufactured  goods, 
and  in  fact  everything  which  we  need  for  the  supply^f  all 


78  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

of  onr  dail}'  wants.  While  the  country  was  new  and  we 
were  importing  goods  from  abroad,  to  make  up  for  the 
lack  of  capacity  of  our  own  manufacturers  and  other  pro- 
ducers, the  prices  which  obtained  were  naturally  those 
which  were  current  abroad,  plus  the  cost  of  transportation, 
and  what  other  loading  came  from  the  tariff  and  conven- 
ience of  delivery.  This  made  a  margin  for  the  payment  of 
higher  wages,  and  to  this  fact  the  influx  of  population  in 
this  country  may  largely  be  attributed.  Now,  as  one  in- 
dustry after  another  reaches  a  point  where  it  can  supply 
tbe  wants  of  the  whole  country,  prices  recede.  The  foreign 
article  is  first  shut  out  of  the  market,  and  then  a  fierce 
competition  springs  up  among  the  different  home  concerns 
with  the  effect  of  still  further  reducing  prices.  Prices  are 
not  reduced  except  when  trade  is  dull.  When  trade  is 
dull  with  industries  employing  labor  largely,  a  great  many 
men  are  out  of  employment,  consequently,  when  prices  are 
reduced,  it  always  happens  that  prices  of  labor  are  reduced. 
Now,  it  seems  to  me  that,  with  the  advent  of  better  times, 
wages  will  so  improve  with  some  of  the  industries  as  to 
silence  a  great  deal  of  the  present  complaint,  but  with  oth- 
ers, and  these  will  largely  be  manufacturers,  trade  will  hard- 
ly improve  enough  to  keep  them  fully  employed.  The 
tendency  of  prices  and  of  wages  will  be  permanently  low- 
er until  our  costs  of  production  are  reduced  to  the  point 
that  will  allow  of  exportation  in  competition  with  foreign 
goods.  Then  we  may  hope  to  maintain  wages  at  that 
point,  whatever  it  is.  Holding  these  views,  I  think  that 
there  will  be  more  and  more  difficulty  in  the  management 
of  labor,  and  that  onr  population  will  become  more  and  more 
turbulent.  The  trouble  is  too  deep  to  be  reached  by  any 
change  of  method  in  dealing  with  labor.  It  is  utterly  be- 
yond the  control  of  capital  as  anything  can  be.  And  the 
trade^unions  are  utterly  insufficient  in  coping  with  it. 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.      (9 

"  I  can  now  answer  your  direct  questions. 

"1.  Theoretically,  I  should  say  no.  But  it  will  be  al- 
most impossible  to  prevent  them,  so  long  as  markets  fluct- 
uate and  thereby  increase  and  diminish  the  demand  for 
labor. 

"  2.  I  do  not  believe  that  arbitration  can  be  a  complete 
remedy  for  the  differences  between  Capital  and  Labor.  The 
price  of  labor  must  be  governed  by  the  demand  and  sup- 
ply, and  this  principle  will  assert  itself  in  spite  of  every  ef- 
fort, either  of  employers,  employes,  or  arbitrators.  Arbi- 
tration, if  sensible,  will  recognize  the  fact,  and  in  so  far  as 
it  decides  in  accordance  with  it,  it  will  better  matters.  But 
that  is  the  farthest  extent  to  which  it  can  go. 

"  3.  I  do  not  see  how  the  relations  between  Capital  and 
Labor  can,  in  any  general  way,  be  other  than  that  of  em- 
ployer and  employe.  Nor  do  I  see  how  any  man  who  is 
charged  with  the  employment  of  labor,  can  set  any  rule  by 
which  to  be  governed  in  settling  rates  of  wages,  except  the 
market  price. 

"4.  I  think  not,  in  any  large  sense.  I  have  seen  co- 
operative establishments  flourish  in  a  small  way  and  for  a 
limited  time.  But  my  observation  has  been  to  the  effect 
that,  aside  from  the  difficulty  which  the  lack  of  capital  im- 
plies, the  men  lack  the  most  important  element  of  proper 
business  training,  and  are  so  jealous  and  suspicious  of  each 
other  that  they  make  too  many  changes  of  policy  and  of 
management  to  succeed.  I  see  no  hope  of  any  immediate 
improvement  in  that  respect.  The  best  of  the  men  are 
constantly  deserting  from  their  ranks  to  take  their  places 
in  the  ranks  of  the  capitalists.  This  will  always  be  so,  and 
the  progress  of  co-operation  will  be  retarded  accordingly. 

"5.  If  I  have  not  sufficiently  answered  already,  I  should 
say  that  it  was  not  at  the  present  time,  except  in  a  small 
way  and  under  special  circumstances." 


80  THE    LAUOU   PROULEM. 


John  A.  Gibnky,  Esq.,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  GetiercU  Sales  Ar/ent, 
Bilinont  Nail  Company. 

"  1.  No;  but  they  arc  likely  to  continue  features  until  a 
better  untlcrstandino-  Is  reached  as  to  tlie  duties  of  Capital 
as  well  as  Labor.  We  bear  too  much  of  the  rights  of  Cap- 
ital and  the  rights  of  Labor.  Both  have  important  rights, 
it  is  true,  but  too  great  stress  on  them  is  calculated  to  pro- 
duce '  strained  relations.'  The  contrary  spirit  should  be 
encouraged — amicable  relations — a  community  of  interest 
feeling.  This  will  be  sooner  brought  about  by  each  side 
giving  up  the  habit  of  mind  they  seem  to  have  fallen  into 
of  gloating  over  and  asserting  rights,  and  begin  to  consider 
in  their  hearts  their  duties,  the  one  to  the  other.  This 
mental  discipline  should  begin  with  the  so-called  masters — 
the  controllers  and  representatives  of  capital.  A  noble  ex- 
ample on  their  part  will  not  be  without  its  influence.  They 
should  begin  by  considering  whether  they  are  absolute 
masters  or  merely  stewards,  with  responsibilities  propor- 
tioned to  the  power  that  the  temporary  possession  and 
management  of  wealth  gives  them.  They  should  convert 
their  talents,  it  is  true,  but  with  due  regard  to  the  princi- 
ple of  eternal  justice.  They  should  not  forget  that  labor 
is  the  source  of  all  wealth,  and  entitled  to  a  fair  proportion 
of  that  which  it  creates,  and  give  this  proportion  freely 
and  ungrudgingly,  not  waiting  for  demands  to  be  made  on 
them,  in  prosperous  times. 

"  One  of  the  strongest  points  Labor  makes  against  Capital 
is  that  advances  are  seldom  or  never  offered  voluntarily 
when  times  are  good.  They  should  consider  that  merely 
paying  the  minimum  rate  for  which  they  can  hire  the  least 
skilful  or  careful  of  workmen  is  not  filling  the  measure  of 
duty.  Labor  is  defrauded  of  wages  when  denied  full  par- 
ticipation in  the  prosperity  of  employers.     When  it  is  pos- 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  81 

sible,  the  system  of  piece-work  should  be  employed  so  that 
the  most  expert  and  industrious  may  receive  the  greatest 
reward.  "When  this  is  not  practicable,  reasonable  hours 
and  fair  wages  should  be  accorded.  Xo  sweeping  reduc- 
tions without  fair  warning,  and  an  end  to  these  inhuman 
'lock-outs'  that  flood  the  country  with  tramps  and  endan- 
ger all  social  order.  Let  the  masters  be  masters  in  fact  as 
well  as  in  name,  and  deserve  that  honorable  title  by  so 
mastering  their  business  that  we  may  gradually  get  quit  of 
the  great  extremes  of  depression  and  activity  that  have 
been  such  unhappy  features  of  our  industrial  system.  Let 
them  abandon  this  mad  desire  for  supremacy  or  monopoly 
that  leads  to  reckless  increase  of  product  to  the  extent  of 
fifty,  seventy-five,  and  one  hundred  per  cent,  when  a  few 
months  or  years  of  prosperity  are  vouchsafed  the  country, 
frequently  using  their  earnings  and  creating  heavy  indebt- 
edness to  this  end.  Let  them  rather  observe  the  law  of 
natural  increase.  If  wealth  and  population  increase  at  a 
steady  rate  of  five  per  cent.,  let  that  be  their  guide.  And 
withhold  excessive  dividends  as  well  as  avoid  all  stock  wa- 
tering methods,  and  seek  rather  to  accumulate  such  surplus 
as  will  enable  them  to  make  the  necessary  changes  in  plant 
that  new  processes  demand,  as  well  as  carr}'  their  product 
when  demand  falls  off.  They  may  at  such  times  find  it 
necessary  to  reduce  the  liours  of  labor  or  scale  of  wages, 
which  will  be  accepted  on  both  sides  as  preferable  to  lock- 
outs or  strikes.  They  must  not  rely  too  much  on  the  '  su- 
premacy of  cash,'  and  disregard  the  well-being  of  the  work- 
men. Their  own  safety  demands  adherence  to  the  principle 
of  justice,  and  perseverance  in  it  will  disarm  the  profession- 
al agitator.  Such  consideration  can  only  be  claimed  for 
labor  by  their  deserving  it,  and  they  can  only  deserve  it  by 
giving  more  thought  to  their  duties  than  their  rights. 
Merely  performing  their  allotted  task  in  a  routine  way,  and 

0 


82  THE    LAUOK    I'KOBLEM. 

shirking  all  tliey  can,  docs  not  fulfil  the  measure  of  this 
duty.  They  must  put  their  conscience  into  their  work, 
despising  the  shirk  and  avoiding  all  wastefulness,  and  with 
an  eye  single  to  the  interests  of  their  employers,  keeping  . 
in  mind  that  their  continued  success  and  ability  to  afford 
steady  work  and  fair  wages  will  depend  on  the  skill  and 
carefulness  of  workmen.  They  must  be  willing  to  accept 
reductions  in  wages  and  shorter  hours  of  labor  when  times 
are  dull,  and  should  be  very  careful  about  giving  their  alle- 
giance to  dangerous  societies  that  demand  of  them  the 
sinking  of  their  individuality  in  blind  obedience  to  un- 
known and  perhaps  unworthy  masters,  and  which  makes 
them  unwilling  participants  in  strikes  that  are  ordered 
without  sufficient  grounds  and  against  their  better  judg- 
ment. They  should  look  on  strikes  of  this  kind  as  crimes 
against  their  employers,  themselves,  and  families,  and  so- 
ciety at  large.  They  should  give  over  looking  on  the  mas- 
ters as  drones,  who  live  off  their  labor.  Because  they  see 
them  in  comfortable  offices  reading  over  papers  and  study- 
ing over  plans,  they  must  not  envy  them  exemption  from 
manual  labor.  Mental  labor  is  the  most  arduous  of  all, 
and  next  to  virtue  there  is  no  article  so  rare  and  invaluable 
as  brains,  and  none  entitled  to  so  high  a  reward.  The 
promise  is  that  virtue  will  receive  the  highest  reward  in 
the  next  world  as  brains  does  in  this.  It  is  no  longer 
blood  that  tells,  as  in  the  days  of  conquest  and  brute  force 
— it  is  brains  that  tell.  And  the  few  that  have  the  brains 
must  be  the  organizers  and  leaders  of  men.  Yon  must  not 
despair  if  you  see  some  who  make  success  the  rule  of  right 
and  wrong.  The  world  is  not,  as  the  revolutionists  would 
have  us  believe,  '  the  patrimony  of  the  most  dexterous 
scoundrels.'  It  is  for  all  to  enjoy  within  certain  bounds. 
In  conclusion,  I  vt^ould  say  an  educated  or  quickened  con- 
science on  both  sides,  by  studying  the  duties  rather  than 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OK    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  83 

the  rights  of  Capital  and  Labor,  will  answer  not  alone  one 
but  all  of  your  questions.  An  adherence  to  the  principle 
of  eternal  justice  will — 1.  Make  strikes  and  lock-outs  no 
longer  necessary  features,  but  rare  exceptions.  2.  Lead  to 
arbitration.  Men  who  consider  first  their  duties,  the  one 
to  the  other,  are  in  a  fair  mood  for  arbitration.  3.  Not 
only  give  grounds  for  hope  of  reaching  a  satisfactory  and 
equitable  basis  for  division  of  profits  arising  from  indus- 
trial enterprises,  but  reach  in  proportion  as  the  principle  is 
allowed  to  operate,  4.  It  will  amount  to  practical  partici- 
pation in  the  profits  arising  from  industrial  productions. 
5.  It  will  be  true  co-operation — free  from  the  well-known 
objections  that  have  been  found  to  all  schemes  of  a  co-op- 
erative character  that  have  been  tried  so  far." 

General  W.  H.  Powell,  President  Western  Nail  Company, 
Belleville,  III. 

"  My  answers  to  your  important  questions  shall  be  brief 
and  given  from  my  long  practical  stand-point.  I  shall  not 
attempt  to  deal  with  any  other  phase  of  business  interest 
than  that  in  which  I  now  am  and  have  been  engaged  since 
1835,  as  employe  and  employer,  in  organizations  co-opera- 
tive and  non-co-operative,  individual  and  corporative.  For 
I  concede  that  in  influence  the  late  consolidated  Amal- 
gamated Iron  and  Steel  Workers'  Association  of  America 
is  the  most  powerful  of  all  labor  organizations,  and  the 
most  rigid  monopoly  in  existence  to-day  in  the  United 
States — all  other  labor  organizations  being  but  mere  off- 
shoots. 

"1.  I  do  not  consider  strikes  and  lock-outs  as  necessary 
features,  or  results  of  the  present  wage  system.  I  hold 
that  the  true  and  real  interests  of  Capital  and  Labor  arc 
identical  and  inseparable.  They  are,  however,  the  results 
consequent  upon  the  ill-advised  counsels  of  designing  men, 


84  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

denoiiiiiiatt'd  leaders,  who  are  influenced  by  passion  and 
prejudice,  regardless  of  the  real  interests  of  the  masses  of 
the  laboring  classes,  protecting  the  highest  paid  labor,  and 
controlling  the  lowest  paid  labor  by  intimidation  and  def- 
amation, regardless  of  consequent  results. 

"  2.  Arbitration  is,  in  my  opinion,  the  necessary  link  be- 
tween Capital  and  Labor.  The  refusal  of  the  organization 
known  as  the  United  Nailers  to  submit  the  wage  question 
to  arbitration  last  April,  as  was  the  custom  of  the  Amal- 
gamated Association  of  the  Iron  and  Steel  Workers  of  the 
United  States,  from  which  the  United  Nailers  of  America 
seceded  last  spring,  is  the  sole  cause  of  the  long,  bitter 
contest  between  the  manufacturers  and  their  workmen. 
Legislative  arbitration  will  not  obviate  strikes  and  their 
consequent  evils. 

"There  is  no  power  in  the  State,  Church,  or  societies,  no 
police  or  military  capable  of  compelling  or  enforcing  com- 
pulsory practical  arbitration.  Capital  and  Labor  have  ever 
existed  in  their  separate,  independent  spheres  and  interests, 
and  ever  will  to  the  end  of  time.  Their  union  alone  makes 
their  combined  interests  one  and  inseparable.  Amicable 
arbitration  between  Capital  and  Labor  is  the  only  true  rem- 
edy. The  adjustment  of  all  wages  must  be  based  upon 
the  equitable  claims  of  each,  which,  in  my  opinion,  can 
only  be  reached  through  the  medium  of  an  adjustable  scale, 
governed  by  the  minimum  and  maximum  marketable  val- 
ues of  the  combined  product  of  capital  and  labor. 

"  3.  I  think  it  next  to  an  impossibility  to  establish  an 
equitable,  harmonious  basis  between  Capital  and  Labor,  or 
between  the  individual  laboring  participants  in  industrial 
partnerships,  upon  the  mutual  participating  basis  for  the 
divisions  of  profits ;  hence  I  do  not  deem  it  necessary  to 
argue  the  question.  Neither  do  I  think  that  the  remedy 
suggested  in  your  fourth  question  lies  in  the  direction  of 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  85 

industrial  partnerships  and  mutual  participation  in  the  prof- 
its. Inequality  is  seen  upon  the  entirety  of  God's  created 
work.  x\ll  men  are  not  alike,  nor  can  any  power  on  earth 
make  them  so.  Hence,  the  combination  of  capital  and 
unequalled  labor  in  capacity  and  adaptability  upon  an  in- 
dustrial partnership  and  mutual  participation  in  the  profits 
of  the  business  would  require  an  ad  valorem  system  in  men's 
capacity,  tempers,  dispositions,  and  ambitions,  as  well  as 
wages  or  equal  divisions  of  profits,  which  would  open  up  a 
new  and  difficult  basis  of  equalization,  which  we  regard  as 
improbable,  if  not  indeed  impossible. 

"  5.  The  experiences  of  productive  co-operative  enter- 
prises in  the  United  States  are  by  no  means  flattering,  nor 
do  they  give  any  hope  of  relief.  The  instances  on  record 
of  the  organizations  of  co-operative  industries  are  many, 
while  the  history  of  the  success  of  such  enterprises  are  very 
few.  Results  show  very  conclusively  that  the  co-operative 
features  of  such  enterprises  were  of  short  duration  because 
of  the  lack  of  adhesiveness  in  the  body  corporate  absolute- 
ly necessary  to  success  —  demonstrated  in  the  old  truism 
that  too  many  cooks  always  spoil  the  broth." 

Warrek  T.  Kellogg,  Manager  Empire  Portable  Forge  Com- 
pany, Colwes,  N.  T. 

"1.  It  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  explain  one's  position  on 
the  great  questions  of  Labor  and  Capital  in  a  few  words, 
and  in  many  cases  one  is  liable  to  be  misunderstood.  In 
answering  your  questions,  I  feel  compelled  to  admit  that, 
as  at  present  organized,  strikes  and  lock-outs  are  the  neces- 
sary and  unavoidable  fruits  of  the  wage  system,  and  will 
continue  to  be  in  ail  large  establishments,  where  the  em- 
ployer cannot  be  personally  acquainted  with  his  employes. 
And  these  things  must  continue  until  the  wage  is  deter- 
mined by  the  profits  of  the  Itusiness. 


86  THE    LABOR    PHOBLEM. 

"  2.  I  have  no  expectation  tliat  arbitration  can  solve  the 
ditBculty. 

"  3.  The  trne  basis,  as  hinted  above,  is  co-operation,  or 
at  least  to  that  extent  that  the  sober  and  industrions  em- 
ploye can  advance  his  interests  by  advancing  those  of  his 
employer,  which  state  of  things  I  believe  to  be  practical, 
and  will  result  in  lifting  up  the  laborer  and  developing  a 
class  now  almost  unknown  in  the  United  States,  viz.,  a 
servant  seeking  the  best  interests  of  his  employer." 

Samuel  Laughlin,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Junction  Iron  Com- 
pany, WJieeling,  Wed  Virginia. 

"  The  experience  of  myself  for  six  months  in  our  mills 
at  Mingo  and  Martin's  Ferry,  both  nail-mills  employing  a 
large  number — over  one  thousand — of  intelligent  operatives 
and  men  whom  I  personally  highly  esteem,  has  been  pain- 
ful to  myself  and  brother,  whose  death  was  produced  by 
the  incidents  of  the  strike,  now  lasting  over  seven  months. 
I  have  been  a  quiet  observer  of  the  inception  and  progress 
of  this  difficulty,  and  have  been  an  unwilling  participant 
in  it.  I  do  not  feel  that  strikes  or  lock-outs  are  a  neces- 
sary feature  of  the  wage  system,  but  do  believe  arbitration 
the  proper  method  for  the  settlement  of  the  differences 
which  arise  between  the  employers  and  those  employed.  I 
am  confident,  could  the  parties  connected  with  our  nail- 
raills  have  had  a  board  of  arbitration  or  even  a  conference 
committee,  or  any  method  of  bringing  the  moderate  and 
conservative  men  of  both  sides  together,  a  settlement  could 
have  been  reached,  saving  the  immense  loss  of  wages,  keep- 
ing the  busy  wheels  of  mills  in  operation,  avoiding  scenes 
of  riot,  maintaining  the  peace  and  laws  which  have  been 
violated,  giving  the  food  and  comfort  to  many  families 
which  have  been  deprived  of  it,  and  kept  many  a  good 
n)an  from  saloons,  intemperance,  and  vice — the  sequences 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.      87 

of  idleness.  In  the  initial  point  of  our  differences  this 
year  there  was  no  provision  made  by  the  nailers  for  any 
conference  with  the  manufacturers,  and  before  such  had 
been  provided  passion  and  prejudice  had  usurped  the  seat 
of  judgment  and  true  arguments,  and  facts  were  accepted 
only  as  the  means  of  securing  selfish  purposes.  While  I 
believe  the  scale  presented  to  the  nailers  by  the  manufact- 
urers mainly  correct,  and  demanded  by  the  condition  of 
trade  and  surrounding  competition,  yet  it  made  demands 
only  which  could  have  been  harmonized  with  conflicting 
views  had  both  parties  met  in  conference.  The  nailers  of 
our  locality  are  intelligent  men  as  a  class  and  could  readily 
see  the  requirements  of  the  day,  that  any  arbitrary  scale 
placing  us  at  a  disadvantage  with  other  manufacturers  could 
only  be  to  their  ultimate  disadvantage.  Hence  I  feel  that 
arbitration  is  not  only  a  wise  method,  but  in  fact  the  only 
way  to  harmonize  differences  arising  in  reaching  an  equita- 
ble basis  of  the  wage  question,  although  I  am  not  prepared 
to  suggest  the  method  most  desired." 

N.  O.  Nelson,  Esq.,  President  of  the  N.  0.  Nelson  Manufactur- 
ing Company,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

**  Responding  to  your  serial  questions  concerning  strikes 
and  lock-outs,  I  would  say  : 

"  1.  Under  the  present  wage  system  strikes  and  lock- 
outs are  a  necessary  feature. 

"  2.  Arbitration  is  not  a  perfect  but  the  most  available 
remedy. 

"3.  A  better  remedy  must  be  sought  in  a  revision  of 
the  whole  system  of  property  and  its  distribution. 

"4  and  5.  The  industrial  force  is  too  large  and  unwieldy 
to  allow  of  co-operation  or  division  of  profits  being  gener- 
ally adopted.  The  origin  of  the  pressure  of  wage-workers 
for  employment  at  the  hands  of  capital  lies  in  two  fuiid.i 


8S  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

moiital  causes — the  inonop(,)ly  and  consequent  witliholdinf^ 
from  use  of  great  bodies  of  land  and  the  displacement  by 
maeliinery  of  a  large  percentage  of  independent  proprie- 
tors in  country  and  city.  In  new  countries,  where  }and  is 
free  or  very  cheap,  there  are  few  wage -workers  and  no 
strikes.  In  the  great  industrial  States  it  requires  a  consid- 
erable fortune  to  be  a  proprietor  of  any  description.  Cap- 
ital in  both  real  and  personal  property  accumulates  and 
centralizes  into  relatively  few  hands  with  a  corresponding 
and  necessary  increase  in  number  and  dependence  of  wage- 
earners.  In  the  periods  of  active  exchange,  wages,  prices 
and  profits  are  good.  The  proprietor  saves  a  liberal  mar- 
gin, stocks  accumulate,  and  at  last  so  much  is  stored  up 
that  there  is  a  clear  surplus,  and  factories  begin  to  close. 
Wages  ceasing,  cuts  off  the  workman's  purchases,  and  soon 
a  general  stagnation  results.  Had  a  larger  share  been  paid 
the  workmen  tlie  surplus  would  not  have  accumulated. 
Was  there  now  free  or  cheap  land  the  workman  could 
leave  his  glutted  employment  and  make  his  living  outside 
the  factory  ;  the  excessive  pressure  for  factory  employ- 
ments would  never  have  occurred,  and  inequalities  of  pro- 
duction would  readily  adjust  themselves.  With  some  fac- 
tories closed,  many  running  short  time,  and  goods  a  drug 
at  rapidly  declining  prices,  wages  go  down.  Here  comes 
in  the  strike  and  the  lock-out.  Each  manufacturer  is  one 
of  a  vast  system ;  he  cannot  pay  more,  if  he  would,  than 
his  competitors  ;  he  can  run  by  underselling,  but  this  he 
can  do  only  by  reducing  wages.  He  has  gained  his  foot- 
hold by  force  and  independence  of  character,  and  he  will 
not  in  this  emergency  submit  to  interference  by  others, 
certainly  not  his  workmen.  Ignorant  or  careless  of  gen- 
eral principles,  he  holds  his  affairs  to  be  his  own,  and  labor 
to  be  worth  just  what  it  will  bring.  He  can  stop  his  fac- 
tory and  live.     His  hands  cannot.     An  irrepressible  conflict 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.     89 

is  thus  reached  as  distinct  as  that  which  Seward  declared 
to  exist  between  freedom  and  slavery.  Half-starved  and 
exasperated,  the  combined  workmen  strike.  Production 
stops,  enormous  waste  ensues,  and  hot  blood  is  engendered. 
Some  would  arbitrate,  but  under  all  circumstances  the  vast 
majority  of  employers  would  beg  to  be  excused  from  inter- 
ference. Co-operation  in  general  is  impracticable  because 
workmen  have  insufficient  capital,  and  chiefly  because  they 
must  guess  at  their  leaders,  while  the  capitalist  proprietor 
has  reached  his  position  by  natural  selection  and  adapta- 
bility. Starting  as  equals,  a  scramble  for  the  softer  places 
must  engender  dissensions,  jealousies,  and  disorder.  In- 
dustrial partnerships  or  sharing  profits  with  employers  is 
open  to  about  the  same  objections.  Too  many  cooks  spoil 
the  broth.  As  each  man  is  primarily  caring  for  himself 
first,  the  employer  cannot  well  see  his  advantage  in  first 
paying,  as  he  must,  the  same  wages  as  his  competitor,  and 
then  dividing  at  the  end  of  the  year.  Whether  short- 
sighted or  not,  he  would  prefer  to  pay  at  once  what  he 
was  to  finally  pay.  That  strikes  and  lock-outs  are  a  waste, 
and  a  source  of  distress  much  similar  to  war,  is  self-evident ; 
and  pitting  class  against  class  as  distinctly  as  in  the  days 
of  Louis  XVI.,  we  may  well  look  with  alarm  at  the  rap- 
idly approaching  day  of  settlement.  Millions  of  able  and 
intelligent  men,  citizens  of  a  bountiful  country,  will  not 
complacently  see  their  families  hungry  while  they  are  will- 
ing to  work  for  the  bread  and  clothing  and  house-room 
which  is  superabundant,  and  they  will  not  look  too  scrupu- 
lously at  the  tenure  of  title  by  which  a  few  men  have  se- 
cured so  great  an  advantage.  As  nothing  better  can  be 
immediately  reached,  arbitration  and  a  division  of  profits 
are  commendable  remedies.  In  the  mean  time  the  pay- 
ment of  fair  wages  will,  as  a  rule,  obviate  strikes." 


90  THE    LADOR    PROBLEM. 

Elliot  Todd,  Esq.,  President  Standard  Foundry,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

"  1.  Yes. 

"2.  No;  the  party  who  feels  aggrieved  will  find  a  way 
to  avoid  any  agrceinent. 

"  3,  There  are  many  arrangements  of  this  kind,  but  it 
requires  an  unusually  shrewd  man  to  manage  them  in  bad 
times. 

"  4  and  5.  As  long  as  every  man  is  as  good  or  better 
than  the  one  in  authority,  just  so  long  will  men  be  dis- 
satisfied at  not  getting  as  much  as  he." 

A.  N.  Drummond,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Black  Heath  Mining 
Company,  Colfax,  la. 

"1.  I  believe  there  are  cases  where  laborers  can  get  jus- 
tice in  no  other  way. 

"  2.  Some  good  may  result  from  arbitration. 

"3.  Yes. 

"  4.  In  my  experience  the  laborers  seem  to  want  all  the 
profits. 

"  5.  In  some  cases  maybe." 

A.  H.  Danforth,  Esq.,  Vice-President  and  General  Manager  of 
the  Colorado  Coal  and  Iron  Company,  South  Pueblo,  Col. 

**  1.  Strikes  and  lock-outs  are  not  a  necessary  feature  of 
the  wage  system,  but  are  necessarily  associated  with  human 
society  in  a  certain  stage  of  development.  They  are  the 
outgrowth  of  certain  characteristics  of  human  nature — 
avarice,  obstinacy,  independence,  and  a  strong  sense  of  right 
and  justice.  These  are  the  characteristics  of  all  strong- 
races  of  men,  and  hence  strikes  only  occur  among  the  races 
which  in  other  ways  have  shown  strength  of  character. 
The  same  traits  of  character  which  produce  wars  among 
nations  cause  labor  strikes  and  lock-outs. 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  91 

"  2.  Arbitration  is  not  a  panacea  to  cure  the  ills  of  labor, 
but  it  represents  the  next  stage  of  human  development  in 
advance  of  strikes.  In  the  Middle  Ages  might  was  right, 
and  every  dispute  was  settled  by  a  resort  to  force.  This 
was  the  age  of  feudalism.  Following  that  came  the  estab- 
lishment of  courts  of  justice  for  the  settlement  of  disputes, 
and  the  judge  and  lawyer  took  the  place  of  the  baron  and 
soldier  in  the  settlement  of  private  differences.  Strikes  and 
lock-outs  are  the  characteristics  of  the  feudal  age  of  labor 
and  capital,  and  arbitration  will  be  the  characteristic  of  the 
age  of  law.  But  arbitration  will  probably  bring  no  greater 
satisfaction  for  either  side.  It  will  merely  involve  the  use 
of  different  and  less  costly  and  more  humane  methods,  and 
hence  it  means  one  step  in  advance. 

"  The  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  questions  all  relate  to  the 
same  general  subject,  and  so  I  will  answer  them  collectively. 
There  are  three  fundamental  causes  of  labor  troubles.  1st. 
The  question  of  equitable  division  of  the  profits  of  produc- 
tion between  the  laborer  and  employer.  2d.  The  desire 
for  uniformity,  not  equality,  of  wages  on  the  part  of  the 
less  skilful  workmen.  As  the  most  skilful  are  in  a  minority, 
and  as  they  are  less  apt  to  join  trades-unions,  because  they 
do  not  need  their  protection,  the  less  skilful  and  the  slothful 
have  no  difficulty  in  controlling  the  action  of  labor  unions, 
and  hence  in  all  these  bodies  is  engrafted  the  inequitable 
principle  that  the  poor  workman  should  receive  the  same 
rate  of  wages  as  the  skilful  one.  ."^d.  The  influence  of 
unscrupulous  labor  leaders  and  agitators.  I  speak  now 
only  of  the  class  who  foment  trouble  because  their  oc- 
cupation and  profit  arise  from  the  prominence  into 
which  they  rise  in  times  of  strikes.  They  are  the  buz- 
zards who  hover  about  and  fatten  upon  the  battle-field 
where  Labor  and  Capital  have  fought.  The  remedy  for 
the  first   cause  lies  largely  with   the  individual  employer. 


THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 


lie  must  win  the  confidence  of  those  he  employs.  In  do- 
ino"  so  he  must  contend  with  ignorance  and  prejudice  very 
often  ;  but  if  his  acts  are  inspired  by  a  sense  of  right  and 
justice,  and  if  he  is  willing  to  let  that  sense  show  forth  in 
his  acts,  he  will  eventually  succeed  in  establishing  a  basis  of 
mutual  trust  and  esteem  with  his  employes.  I  believe  that 
the  special  way  in  which  this  can  be  done  must  vary  with 
the  circumstances  of  the  case,  but  I  believe  that  the  remedy 
lies  in  the  direction  of  the  following  plan,  which  could  be 
adapted  to  most  cases:  Let  the  employer  say  to  his  fore- 
man, I  am  entitled  to  so  much  per  cent,  as  interest  on  my 
investment.  You  are  entitled  to  such  rates  of  wages  for 
your  labor.  At  the  end  of  each  year  all  profits  over  and 
above  expenses — including  in  expenses  the  interest  on  in- 
vestment— shall  be  divided  between  employer  and  employes, 
that  which  goes  to  employes  to  be  pro-rated  on  the  basis  of 
number  of  days'  work  done.  The  details  of  the  system 
would  have  to  be  adjusted  to  suit  individual  cases,  but  the 
principle  involved  would,  I  believe,  be  equitable,  and  would 
bring  peace  and  prosperity  to  both  employer  and  employed. 
One  difficulty  would  arise  in  cases  where  a  year's  business 
showed  a  loss  ;  but  if  every  manufacturer  worked  upon  this 
system  there  would  be  less  loss,  as  it  would  tend  to  prevent 
ruinous  competition  resulting  in  goods  being  sold  at  less 
than  cost.  Such  a  system  would  also  meet  the  growing  de- 
mand for  shorter  hours  of  labor.  Many  farmers  and  mer- 
chants have  long  ago  adopted  this  principle,  and  it  has  been 
found  to  work  well.  But,  as  I  have  said  before,  much  de- 
pends npon  individual  character,  and  no  system  will  com- 
pensate for  lack  of  judgment  and  sound  sense  in  the  indi- 
vidual who  attempts  to  apply  it.  As  to  the  second  cause, 
the  remedy  lies  in  an  alliance  for  mutual  protection  between 
the  employer  and  the  industrious  workmen  on  the  one 
hand  against  the  slothful   and   careless  workmen  on   the 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.      93 

other,  just  as  the  moral  elements  of  society  band  them- 
selves together  against  the  vicious.  The  remedy  for  the 
third  cause  lies  in  a  greater  degree  of  intelligence  (not 
necessarily  education,  but  intelligence)  among  workmen. 
This  intelligence  can  be  fostered  and  cultivated  very  great- 
ly by  the  employer ;  and  when  the  employer  has  once  put 
himself  in  a  position  where  he  has  won  the  confidence  of 
his  men,  he  need  have  no  further  fear  of  the  influence  of 
evil-disposed  leaders.  The  solution  of  the  whole  question 
of  the  relations  of  Capital  and  Labor  must  be  evolved  out  of 
the  chaos  which  now  exists,  and  much  time  and  money  will 
be  spent  before  the  solution  is  reached.  The  employer 
who  recognizes  the  just  rights  of  his  men,  and  who  places 
himself  on  a  footing  of  equity  and  confidence  with  them,  is 
the  fittest,  and  hence  will  survive,  and  thus  eventually  will 
the  problem  be  worked  out.  The  co-operative  plan,  pure 
and  simple,  can  never  come  into  play  except  as  regards  en- 
terprises on  a  very  small  scale,  and  even  then  it  is  not  like- 
ly to  succeed,  but  the  co-operative  principle  in  some  form 
must  be  the  basis  upon  which  industrial  enterprises  will 
finally  be  adjusted.  The  aggregation  of  wealth  in  a  few 
hands,  coupled  with  discontent  among  the  masses,  are  in- 
compatible with  republican  institutions,  and  safety  lies  in 
some  middle  ground  between  an  aristocracy  of  wealth  on 
the  one  hand  and  socialism  on  the  other." 

The  Secretary  and  Treasurer  of  one  of  the  largest  steel  manufactur- 
ing concerns  in  this  country  writes : 

"  1.  Not  necessarily.  Ignorance  and  liquor-drinking  are 
the  difficulties  on  the  one  hand,  and  greed  on  the  other. 

"  2.  Doubtful.  Experience  here  has  been  on  the  whole 
unfavorable.  .  .  . 

"  4.  Not  with  the  class  of  working-men  employed  in 
this  vicinity. 


94  THE  LABOK  PROBLEM. 

"  6.  Yes,  conditioned  upon  the  workmen  being  provi- 
dent and  intelligent." 

Joseph    Corns,   Su.,  of  Joseph    Corns  &  Son,  Masdllon  (0.) 
liolling-mill. 

"  1.  No!  most  positively  no.  It  is  the  lack  of  knowl- 
edge on  both  sides  of  the  wage  system,  and  the  ignorance 
grows  out  of  the  consuming  greed  for  the  lion's  share  on 
both  sides.  The  effort  and  time  is  used  and  made  in  se- 
curing that  end  rather  than  in  finding  out  which,  in  the 
long-run,  would  be  the  most  equitable  to  both.  Until  the 
latter  becomes  the  rule  of  action,  strikes,  etc.,  will  occur, 
and  the  ever-varying  conditions  of  trade  will  determine 
the  kind  and  amount  of  friction  between  the  parties  in  in- 
terest. 

"  2.  We  answer  just  as  positively.  No.  No  arbitrator  can 
comprehend  the  varying  conditions  of  each  side,  and  very 
few  men  will  so  expose  their  private  affairs  as  to  fully  en- 
able the  arbitrator  to  judge  fairly ;  and  the  result  of  the 
answers  to  question  No.  1  is  the  entire  loss  of  confidence 
between  the  parties  in  interest  that  make  arbitration  a 
farce,  which  seldom  lasts  as  long  after  the  results  of  an  ar- 
bitration is  known  as  it  required  to  reach  the  decision  ; 
and  I  have  invariably  found  that  the  consenting  to  the  re- 
sult of  arbitration  was  no  more  nor  less  than  the  weak  side 
desiring  an  excuse  for  abandoning,  for  the  time  being,  the 
contest,  to  be  taken  up  at  a  more  convenient  season. 

"  3.  We  answer  again.  No.  No  division  of  profits  in  the 
form  of  dividends  made  up  from  the  yearly  settlements 
will  satisfy  both  parties  at  the  same  time.  If  dividends 
are  short,  somebody  is  dissatisfied — bad  management  or 
something  else  is  the  cause. 

"  4.  No ;  for  the  reason  that  so  many  men  whose  labor 
is  so  varied  and  so  little   understood  by  each  other  that 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.      95 

jealousy  and  bickerings  are  the  result,  and  failure  in  the 
end  as  a  very  natural  result. 

"In  my  judgment,  made  up  from  an  experience  of  fifty- 
five  years'  duration,  both  as  employer  and  employe,  there 
is  but  one  way  to  successfully  conduct  the  iron  business. 
First,  the  employer  must  act  truthfully,  promptly,  consid- 
erately, and  impartially  with  all  the  men  employed,  keep- 
ing no  man  that  he  cannot  treat  with  common  decency, 
being  at  all  times  ready  to  pay  all  the  wages  that  the  busi- 
ness will  justify,  and  do  it  cheerfully.  If  such  a  course  is 
pursued  there  will  seldom  be  a  misunderstanding,  for  I  have 
always  been  able  to  show  a  good  cause  for  any  change  in 
wages,  and  they  were  generally  accepted  until  within  a  few 
years;  and  since  then  the  whole  mass  of  employers  are 
mistrusted  and  distrusted  as  the  result  of  the  tyranny  of 
some  employers.  There  are  some  among  them  and  no 
mistake.  Workmen  properly  treated  will  seldom  if  ever 
strike — that  is  my  experience.  The  bitterness  now  exist- 
ing is  the  result  of  continued  oppression  and  retaliation, 
first  by  one  side,  then  the  other,  and  until  all  this  can  be 
changed  the  fight  will  go  on.  You  may  theorize  and  rea- 
son and  plan  and  arbitrate  as  you  please,  but  the  chasm  will 
remain  unbridged.  There  are  numerous  and  good  reasons 
that  could  be  given  for  the  position  taken,  but  I  suppose 
your  spare  room  would  not  be  sufHcient  to  repeat  them." 

Tlie  writer  of  the  following  is  a  prominent  iron  manufacturer, 
who  requests  us  to  withhold  his  name. 

"  It  will  be  conceded  that  '  the  relations  of  Capital  and 
Labor  are  gradually  but  none  the  less  surely  becoming  more 
strained,'  so  are  all  other  monetary  and  tariff  relations  simi- 
larly affected.  They  arc  matters  too  profound  for  solution 
by  legislation;  they  can  only  be  solved  by  the  long,  painful 
ex[ierience  of   ages — by  the  slow  evolutionary  growth  that 


96  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

must  result  from  a  liiijjher  and  more  general  civilization — hy 
uplifting  man,  not  by  law,  but  by  education,  by  moral  re- 
straint. 

"  The  writer  knows  of  model  shops  and  factories  in  pros- 
perous Ohio  and  Indiana  towns  and  cities,  which  have  for 
several  decades  been  a  source  of  profit  to  employers  and 
workmen,  in  which  no  strike  or  lock-out  attended  with  vio- 
lence or  disorder  has  ever  occurred,  and  in  which  no  such 
violent  strikes  as  occur  in  rolling-mills  and  mines  is  pos- 
sible. The  men  are  intelligent,  thrifty,  well-paid,  and 
thoroughly  free  and  independent.  The  saloon  does  not  en- 
croach on  their  financial  and  moral  resources,  nor  the  lodge 
on  their  manhood.  The  man  is  supreme,  not  the  lodge. 
They  use  wisely  the  freedom  which  the  laws  give  each  of 
them.  With  such  conditions  I  would  answer  your  first 
question  in  the  negative. 

"  But  given  a  class  of  employers  who  have  nothing  in 
common  with  a  class  of  employes  bonded  together  by  ag- 
gressive socialistic  and  labor  lodges,  whose  members  are 
mostly  of  foreign  birth,  whose  wages,  ample  for  the  family 
and  school,  are  spent  in  the  saloon — with  such  conditions 
I  would  answer  your  first  question  in  the  affirmative,  and 
say  that  violent  and  disorderly  strikes  are  unavoidable,  and 
can  only  be  averted  by  a  higher  civilization,  not  by  law. 

"  Granted  entire  freedom  to  Capital  and  Labor  (and  this 
is  about  all  the  law  can  do)  and  the  violence  and  disorder 
of  strikes  would  be  impossible.  The  long,  world-wide,  in- 
dustrial depression  has  demonstrated  that  the  price  at  which 
the  employer  can  sell  his  product  and  the  workman  his 
labor  are  beyond  the  control  of  either  and  beyond  the  con- 
trol of  legislation — they  are  governed  by  the  world's  demand 
and  supply. 

"Arbitration  presupposes  reasonable  litigants;  with  these 
it  is  perhaps  the  best  method  that  can  be  adopted.    One  can 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.      97 

always  arbitrate  with  free,  reasonable  men,  but  never  with 
a  lodge. 

"  The  writer  knows  of  strikes  lasting  five  and  six  months, 
with  ineffectual  conference  and  loss  on  both  sides,  where  a 
full  understanding  was  never  reached  until  the  bankrupt 
raanufacturer  met  his  tramp  workman  on  tiie  common 
highway  of  equality.  They  then  knew  less  about  political 
economy  than  they  thought  they  did,  but  a  great  deal  more 
about  'the  relations  of  Capital  and  Labor.'  This  is  a  case 
that  the  law  cannot  reach  ;  nothing  but  the  principles  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  conld  avert  it.  There  is  noth- 
ing conclusive  except  practical  results.  Oh,  how  weary  we 
all  are  of  theories  !  That  was  a  wise  iron  manufacturer  who 
answered  Secretary  Manning's  letter  about  the  cost  of  iron. 
'  The  only  way  to  find  the  cost  of  iron,'  he  said,  '  is  to 
build  a  rolling-mill  and  run  it.'  He  was  right.  Money 
and  profits  are  regulated  by  inexorable  but  beneficent 
laws  of  which  we  scarcely  know  anything.  Capital  is  so 
abundant,  so  alert,  that  any  manufacture  paying  even  about 
six  per  cent,  profit  is  at  once  duplicated,  or  any  railroad 
paying  more  than  the  same  profit  is  at  once  paralleled. 
Thus  nothing  can  withstand  our  sharp  American  competi- 
tion. What  the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak, 
competition  has  accomplished.  Monopolies  and  even  suc- 
cessful combinations  are  impossible. 

"So  long  as  the  people  of  this  country  spend  $1,000,- 
000,000  yearly  on  the  drink  habit,  so  long  will  the  rela- 
tions of  Capital  and  Labor  be  strained,  as  well  as  ail  other 
relations  that  affect  the  well-being  of  our  country." 

E.  A.  Wheeler,  Esq.  ,  Man/irjer  of  the  Wheeler  Furnace  Com- 
pany, Sharon,  Pa. 

"  1.  Strikes  and  lock-outs  are  necessary,  and  are  the  only 
legitimate  way  to  settle  prices  of  labor  under  the  present 

7 


98  THK    LABOR    i'ROBLKM. 

wage  system.  The  wage-worker  lias  no  other  way  to  test 
the  market  for  increased  wages  than  to  stop  work  and  see 
whether  the  operator  will  pay  the  demand  or  shut  down 
the  works.  If  times  are  good  and  the  article  manufactured 
wanted,  the  stop  is  generally  of  short  duration,  the  opera- 
tor accedes  to  the  demand  and  adds  a  percentage  to  the 
selling  price  of  his  goods,  and  the  works  go  on  and  every 
person  has  been  benefited.  But  if  times  are  hard,  and  a 
large  stock  on  hand,  the  proprietor  is  overjoyed  that  his 
pay-roll  is  stopped,  and  it  gives  him  a  chance  to  clean  out 
the  stock  and  make  his  collections,  and  in  a  short  time  he 
is  in  a  much  better  position.  Although  there  has  been 
much  bad  blood  stirred  up,  like  muddy  water  it  has  settled 
by  standing ;  the  strike  is  settled  and  all  works  well  again. 
Lock-outs  are  conducted  much  the  same  way,  only  the  op- 
erator finds  himself  overstocked  with  goods  and  a  dull 
market,  and  he  must  either  stop  work  or  reduce  the  cost, 
and  he  demands  a  reduction  in  wages,  or  a  shut  down  if 
his  workmen  refuse  to  accept;  the  lock-out  follows,  very 
likely  to  the  advantage  of  both  parties.  The  operator 
cleans  up  his  stock,  gets  in  better  shape,  calls  in  his  work- 
men and  settles  on  some  terms,  and  all  goes  on  as  before. 
Strikes  seldom  occur  when  times  are  good,  and  I  hope  to 
show,  before  I  am  through,  how  the  surplus  labor  can  be 
utilized. 

"  2.  Arbitration  is  not  satisfactory,  and  never  will  be  as 
a  means  of  settling  this  great  labor  question.  It  is  a  com- 
promise without  any  regard  to  fairness.  It  is  a  '  split-the- 
difEerence'  '  horse- jockey '  style.  It  gives  neither  party 
what  they  demand,  consequently  neither  party  is  satisfied. 
The  proprietor  knows  better  what  he  can  do  in  his  own 
business  than  any  stranger  can  come  in  and  tell  him ;  and 
if  the  compromise  does  not  suit  him  he  can  close  his  works, 
and  will,  if  he  cannot  run  at  a  profit.    We  have  an  arbitra- 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.      99 

tion  law  in  this  State,  and  it  was  tried  in  the  coal-miners' 
strike  last  year  near  Pittsburg,  and  the  miners  refused  to 
stand  by  the  decision  of  the  arbitrators. 

"3.  Industrial  enterprise  is  the  great  lever  that  moves 
the  commerce  of  the  world,  and  free  to  all.  It  is  the  means 
by  which  the  laborer  with  energy,  sobriety,  and  enterprise 
becomes  the  workman,  foreman,  proprietor,  capitalist,  mil- 
lionaire, and  finally  denounced  as  the  bloated  bond-holder, 
although  his  enterprise  has  employed  honest  working  peo- 
ple by  the  thousands.  Industrial  enterprise  offers  success 
to  all  who  have  the  pluck  and  brain  to  work  themselves 
up. 

"  4.  The  Standard  Oil  Company  might  be  called  a  pro- 
ductive co-operation.  They  took  out  a  charter,  subscribed 
stock,  elected  officers,  and  went  into  the  oil  business,  em- 
ployed laborers  and  workmen  by  the  thousands,  paid  as 
good  wages  as  others,  gave  steady  employment,  extended 
their  business  all  over  the  civilized  world,  and  have  made 
large  profits,  which  they  have  divided  among  their  stock- 
holders. They  are  denounced  as  a  great  monopoly.  If 
we  had  plenty  inore  such  monopolies  labor  would  find  bet- 
ter employment.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent  others  from 
organizing  and  doing  as  they  have,  if  they  have  the  energy 
and  brains  to  run  the  business.  There  is  only  one  monop- 
oly that  we  need  to  fear — that  is  land  monopoly.  Land  is 
God's  given  inheritance  to  the  people,  and  it  is  a  burning 
shame  and  sin  that  our  government  has  been  giving  it 
away  to  corporations  and  selling  it  to  foreigners  in  large 
blocks.  No  man  or  company  should  be  allowed  to  hold 
any  more  land  than  ho  could  use,  say  from  one  liundred  to 
five  hundred  acres,  and  the  government  should  take  posses- 
sion of  ail  over  that  amount  by  purchase  or  otherwise,  and 
hold  it  for  actual  settlers.  Nothing  will  change  the  whole 
nature  of  a  man  so  much  as  to  have  a  home  of  his  own. 


100  TIIK    LADOR    PROBLEM. 

This  is  a  question  that  cveiy  American  citizen  is  interested 
in.  The  land  monopoly  could  be  regulated  by  an  increased 
tax-rate  per  acre  on  large  tracts,  so  that  it  would  be  un- 
profitable to  hold  them. 

"  We  all  see  the  condition  of  things.  We  see  the  great 
masses  of  idle,  discontented,  hungry,  and  desperate,  com- 
munism, socialism,  dynamitism,  and  labor  unions,  all  en- 
deavoring to  do  something,  they  know  not  what.  This  is 
too  vast  a  question  for  individual  enterprise  to  solve.  Per- 
haps the  nearest  this  labor  question  was  ever  solved  was 
under  the  rule  of  Louis  Napoleon  in  France.  He  knew 
the  way  to  keep  the  people  contented  was  to  keep  them 
employed.  In  Paris  he  opened  up  lanes  into  boulevards, 
he  tore  down  dilapidated  buildings  and  in  their  places 
built  the  finest  blocks.  He  made  Paris  the  finest  city  in 
the  world.  He  built  docks  and  harbors — in  fact,  did  any- 
thing and  everything  to  keep  labor  employed.  He  taxed 
Capital  to  pay  Labor,  and  the  people  were  prosperous  and 
happy. 

"The  only  way  I  see  out  of  this  trouble  is  for  the  gov- 
ernment to  take  it  in  hand ;  first,  by  regulating  the  emi- 
gration to  this  country.  In  times  of  great  depression  we 
cannot  afford  to  take  all  the  surplus  labor  of  Europe.  I 
know  of  no  better  way  than  to  collect  a  duty  from  each 
emigrant.  If  this  is  a  better  country  than  the  one  they 
left,  why  should  they  not  pay  for  the  privilege  of  our  ad- 
vantages? I  would  make  the  tax  large  enough  to  keep 
out  the  beggars,  thieves,  organ-grinders,  socialists,  and 
communists.  Then  let  Congress  pass  an  act  authorizing 
the  President  to  call  out  or  enlist  a  civil  service  army, 
equipped  for  work  under  the  command  of  our  regular  army 
officers  and  engineers,  at  draining  and  reclaiming  swamp 
lands,  boring  artesian  wells  (where  water  is  scarce),  build- 
ing harbors,  straightening  rivers,  building  a  great  national 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QL'ESTIOX.  101 

railroad  from  east  to  west,  preparing  waste  lands  for  set- 
tlers; and  when  a  man  has  served  the  time  he  enlisted  for, 
give  him  a  farm  and  free  transportation  to  it  and  a  little 
money  to  start,  and  in  this  way  take  up  the  surplus  labor. 
Give  the  communist  and  socialist  a  chance  to  own  a  home 
and  he  will  quit  talking  about  dividing  up.  This  may  be 
considered  a  wild  scheme,  but  something  must  be  done ; 
either  the  government  must  take  care  of  this  surplus  labor 
or  they  will  have  to  employ  an  army  to  suppress  bread 
riots  and  mob  law." 

E.  G.  Peckham,  Esq.,  Toledo,  0. 

"  It  is  certainly  in  a  very  bad  situation  now,  when  tlie 
employer  thinks  his  men  the  most  unreasonable  and  ngly 
set  on  earth,  and  the  employes  think  their  bosses  would 
force  them  down  to  starvation  prices  if  they  could.  This 
war  has  been  going  on  so  long  that  it  will  be  more  difficult 
to  get  things  in  the  right  track  than  it  would  have  been 
at  an  earlier  day.  But  to  the  employer  who  is  willing  to 
allow  his  men  a  fair  and  equitable  share  of  the  profits  of 
the  business  the  difficulties  are  not  insurmountable.  Sup- 
pose we  infuse  a  little  practical  Christianity  into  the  busi- 
ness. Let  the  proprietors  get  acquainted  with  their  men  ; 
call  them  together  once  in  a  while  and  talk  to  them,  and 
invite  the  men  to  talk  back ;  furnish  them  with  a  library 
and  a  reading-room  ;  give  them  a  half  day  holiday  occa- 
sionally ;  look  after  the  comforts  around  their  homes, 
and  by  other  such  ways  make  them  feel  that  you  are 
their  friend  and  well-wisher.  They  will  soon  reciprocate 
the  kindly  feeling  and  give  you  their  confidence.  How 
does  a  general  do  with  his  army  ?  lie  looks  out  carefully 
for  their  comfort — sees  that  their  rations  are  good  and 
abundant,  water  near,  etc.,  and  he  wants  them  to  know 
that  he  is  solicitous  for  their  comfurt.      He  wants  them 


lUJ  THE    LABOR    I'KODLEM. 

not  only  to  obey  bis  commands,  but  to  respect  bim  and 
feel  kindly  towards  bim  —  knowing  that  with  such  feel- 
ings they  will  obey  bim  more  promptly  and  fight  more 
courageously.  It  is  precisely  so  with  your  armies  of  work- 
ers. It  is  for  your  interest  to  gain  their  confidence.  They 
are  not  any  more  desirous  of  strikes  than  you  are,  will  bear 
a  good  deal  of  what  they  think  injustice  before  resorting 
to  a  strike.  But  they  must  have  food  and  raiment  and 
the  comforts  of  a  home ;  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuits  of 
happiness.  Cultivate  something  of  the  spirit  that  prevails 
at  Pullman  and  in  other  places.  I  think  this  the  only  true 
solution  of  the  labor  problem,  and  I  do  not  see  why  it  is 
not  entirely  practical,  and  would  make  things  not  only 
much  pleasanter,  but  also  very  much  more  profitable  to  all 
concerned.     A  contented  man  will  be  an  eflScient  worker." 

J.  F.  Darnall,  President  of  the  Greencastle  {Indiana)  Iron  and 
Nail  Comj)any. 

"  1.  They  are  a  natural  result  of  the  present  system. 
The  wage-worker  studies  but  one  side  of  the  question, 
hence  is  educated  and  indoctrinated  into  false  ideas  and 
theories  of  commercial  interest,  and  seeks  to  do  by  organ- 
ization that  which  is  impracticable  and  absurd.  Stimulat- 
ed by  the  cry  of  oppression,  he  is  led  to  be  the  oppressor. 
Designing  men  and  demagogues,  ever  on  the  alert  for  self- 
ish purposes,  availing  themselves  of  opportunities  presented 
by  labor  disturbances  for  notoriety,  are  no  small  factors  in 
producing  unrest  and  disquietude. 

"  2.  No ;  I  answer,  No !  The  missing  link  is  common- 
sense,  and  to  this  we  must  come  for  a  correct  solution. 
Labor  is  business,  and  the  employment  of  labor  is  business ; 
employer  and  employe  have  equal  rights,  and  are  entitled 
to  equal  protection  by  law,  reason,  or  justice.  A  man  sells 
his  labor  as  a  merchant  sells  his  goods.     It  takes  two  to 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION'.    103 

make  a  contract.  Where  does  tlie  principle  of  interven- 
tion come  in  if  one  of  the  parties  does  not  wish  to  buy  or 
sell  to  the  other?  In  the  absence  of  specific  contract  it  is 
nowhere  held  that  a  man  can  compel  another  to  work  for 
him  if  he  does  not  want  to  work.  Nor  should  a  man  be 
compelled  to  hire  a  man  he  does  not  want.  If  this  princi- 
ple is  correct  as  to  one  man,  it  is  equally  so  as  to  ten  men  ; 
or  if  the  employer  be  one  man  or  a  company  of  men,  dif- 
fering only  in  degree.  A  man  or  company  of  men  build 
an  elevator,  and  will  only  pay  seventy-five  cents  per  bushel 
for  wlieat;  the  farmers  ask  a  dollar.  Do  they  call  for  a 
board  of  arbitration  ?  No ;  they  simply  keep  the  wheat  or 
take  it  elsewhere.  Is  there  any  more  reason  why  arbitra- 
tion should  be  called  to  say  what  the  elevator  company 
should  pay  for  labor  to  handle  the  wheat  than  to  say  what 
they  should  pay  for  the  wheat? 

"Let  us  apply  this  common-sense  principle  to  all  indus- 
trial pursuits.  If  Capital  will  not  pay  the  price  Labor  de- 
mands, leave  both  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights  and 
property;  to  impose  on  one  is  tyranny,  the  other  slavery. 
The  spirit  of  communism  springing  into  life  in  this  coun- 
try is  a  result  growing  out  of  a  violation  of  this  plain,  com- 
mon-sense idea.  We  believe  the  tendency  for  both  Labor 
and  Capital  is  to  smaller  rewards.  The  country  is  passing 
from  a  sparse  to  a  dense  population,  the  labor  portion  in- 
creasing probably  in  the  greater  ratio,  and  by  natural  law 
the  inclination  of  wages  downward.  Capital,  by  excessive 
competition,  has  been  compelled  to  avail  itself  of  all  mod- 
ern appliances  to  increase  its  productive  capacity  to  cheapen 
the  product.  The  great  cry  of  the  age  is  '  cheap  goods,' 
which  means  cheap  labor.  Both  are  coming,  and  much  of 
the  resistance  offered  is  fighting  the  irresistible. 

"As  to  your  fnirth  and  fifth  questions  in  regard  to  in- 
dustrial partnerships  and  productive  co-operation,  I  would 


104  'I'lIK     I.AUOK     I'UOIII.KM. 

say,  \vc  recoji^nizo  the  equality  of  all  iik^ii  before  the  law, 
and  that  they  are  endowed  with  certain  inalienable  rights, 
etc.  But  tlicre  is  a  difference  in  the  circumstances,  apti- 
tudes, thoughts,  inclinations,  opinions,  and  judgments  of 
men  that  make  it  impossible  to  bring  into  general  use  a 
system  of  productive  co-operation  that  would  produce  har- 
mony in  the  <listribution  of  profits  arising  from  industrial 
enterprises.  If  man  were  a  machine  or  automaton,  then 
the  adjusting  principle  would  naturally  be  industrial  part- 
nership and  mutual  participation." 

S.  J.  Mouuis,  of  the   Cyclone  Mamifactuving  Comimny,  De 
Witt,  la. 

"  1.  Yes,  until  the  employe  shall  have  learned  the  lesson 
that  Labor  is  dependent  upon  Capital.  Labor  must  work. 
Capital  may  or  may  not — the  presumption  is  very  strong 
that  it  need  not.  Labor  may,  and  quite  frequently  does, 
squeeze  too  hard  the  goose  that  laid  the  golden  egg.* 

"  2.  No.  Arbitration  is  a  rule  of  equity,  and  who  of  us 
would  submit  to  a  third  and  entirely  disinterested  or  unin- 
terested party  the  question,  '  How  mucli  shall  we  liave  for 
a  dozen  clothes-pins  or  a  ton  of  pig-iron?'  It  may  be  that 
labor  possesses  some  secret  charm  that  absolves  it  from  the 

*"What  we  cull  a  working -man  is  a  wage- worker:  a  man  who 
works,  whether  with  brain  or  hand,  under  the  employment  of  another, 
on  whom  he  is  dependent,  first,  for  the  opportunity  to  work  at  all ; 
second,  for  the  compensation  for  his  work  ;  third,  for  tiie  conditions 
under  which  that  work  can  be  carried  on.  Under  this  system,  labor 
— that  is,  the  laborer — is  a  commodity  to  be  hired  in  the  cheapest 
market.  The  capitalist,  interested  to  pay  as  little  for  labor  as  possi- 
ble, organizes  to  bear  the  labor  market — that  is,  to  depress  wages  ; 
the  laborers,  interested  to  get  as  much  for  what  they  have  to  sell  as 
possible,  organize  to  bull  the  labor  market ;  and  the  price  paid  by 
one  and  received  by  the  other  is  determined  by  the  conflict  between 
the  two." — Lyman  Abbott. 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OK  THE  LABOR  QLESTIOX.    105 

common  and  natural  law  of  other  commodities,  that  of 
supply  and  demand,  but  it  is  so  secret  that  it  strikes  us  as 
yet  undiscovered. 

"3.  No;  for  under  the  existing  temper  of  the  workman, 
the  profits,  however  large,  would  not  be  wholly  satisfactory; 
and  if  the  dividend  were  passed  the  matter  is  still  worse, 
and  cries  of  fraud,  oppression,  etc.,  rend  the  air  on  all  sides. 
We  may  hope  for  some  such  basis,  but  let  us  not  tumble 
over  ourselves  in  doing  so  until  the  workman  shall  read, 
think,  educate  himself;  until  he  shall  spend  less  time  and 
money  in  saloons ;  until  both  parties,  employer  and  em- 
ploye, shall  think  less  of  self  and  rights,  and  more  of  duty 
and  square  dealing — in  short,  until  the  milleiniium. 

"4.  Maybe;  but  the  bugbear  of  capital  will  still  intrude 
and  insist  that  it,  too,  is  worth  something,  and  brains,  ever 
present  in  every  profitable  and  worthy  enterprise,  might 
perhaps,  suggest  its  superiority  of  worth  over  that  of  hands. 
Is  not  the  present  wage  system  an  industrial  partnership  ? 
Are  not  brains  and  capital  as  alert  and  active  as  hands? 

"  5.  No.  The  grange  movement,  although  not  strictly 
productive,  would  seem  to  illustrate  this  negation.  A  rope 
of  sand,  the  larger  and  longer  and  heavier  it  grew,  so  grew 
it  weaker. 

"  And,  gentlemen,  workmen,  whether  named  brains,  capi- 
tal, or  hands,  this  strife,  as  strife  in  these  days  it  must  be 
termed,  is  unprofitable,  is  unmanly,  is  unreasoning  —  in  ev- 
ery phase  is  little  short  of  idiotic.  There  is  no  antagonism 
between  you ;  there  can  be  none,  for  without  the  others 
each  is  useless.  The  triune  must  be  complete,  and  whether 
combined  in  one  person  or  diffused  throughout  a  thousand, 
it  is  precisely  the  same.  Each  has  his  part  to  do,  and  there- 
in, if  he  be  a  master  workman,  has  enough  to  do." 


106  THE    LAUOR    PKOliLEM, 


J.  G.  Batteuson,  Esq.,  President  Neic  England  Qranite  Worlcs, 
Hartford,  Conn. 

"1.  If  this  question  refers  to  the  general  system  of  pay- 
ing wages  for  the  workmen's  time  or  service,  I  think  tlie 
answer  must  be,  No.  If  it  refers  to  a  particular  system  or 
method  of  payment,  by  which  the  men  are  compelled  to 
accept  a  large  portion  of  their  wages  in  supplies  from  a 
company  store  at  high  prices — or,  when  paid  in  money,  is 
paid  at  uncertain  times,  thus  forcing  an  assignment  of 
wages  in  order  to  procure  the  necessaries  of  life — then  it  is 
clear  that  all  such  objectional  and  offensive  methods  are 
likely  to  result  in  a  strike. 

"Strikes  rarely  occur  when  business  is  so  dull  that  the 
men  are  put  upon  half  time  and  reduced  wages ;  but  when 
business  is  so  active  that  the  supply  of  skilled  labor  is  not 
equal  to  the  demand,  then  the  workmen  take  advantage  of 
the  situation  and  strike  for  higher  wages,  in  the  same  way 
that  the  merchant  marks  up  his  goods  when  the  demand 
is  greater  than  the  supply.  Viewed  then  from  the  stand- 
point of  supply  and  demand,  the  wage  system  is  necessarily 
provocative  of  strikes  and  lock-outs,  for  the  employer  who 
has  been  forced  to  submit  to  a  strike  for  higher  wages  in 
brisk  times,  will  quite  likely  shut  down  his  mill  in  dull 
times,  rather  than  do  business  at  a  loss  for  the  sake  of  giv- 
ing his  men  employment. 

"2.  I  think  not.  The  amount  which  a  manufacturer 
shall  pay  as  wages  can  no  more  be  settled  by  arbitration 
than  the  price  which  the  consumer  shall  pay  for  the  goods 
can  be  settled  by  arbitration.  There  are  some  questions 
of  disagreement  involving  the  protection  of  rights  and  the 
remedy  for  wrongs  which  can  be  settled  by  arbitration, 
but  this  does  not  reach  the  missing  link.  'The  hireling 
fleeth  because  he  is  an  hireling;'  and  that  is  as  true  to-day 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    107 

as  it  was  eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  When  Ave  can  dis- 
cover the  means  of  elevating  all  intelligent  and  skilled  la- 
bor above  the  degrading  service  of  a  mere  hireling,  admit- 
ting its  right  to  an  interest  and  reward  commensurate  with 
its  capacity  and  contribution,  then  we  shall  have  discovered 
the  missing  coupling,  and  not  before. 

"  3.  If  1  correctly  understand  what  you  mean  by  '  indus- 
trial enterprises,'  I  should  say,  Yes. 

"4.  It  is  easy  enough  to  say  yes  to  this  question  as  a 
matter  of  theory ;  reduce  it  to  practice  and  your  troubles 
begin  with  the  first  step.  An  'industrial  partnership' 
will  not  necessarily  be  successful  for  the  reason  that  the 
theory  is  correct.  Success  in  business,  whether  conducted 
by  a  single  individual  or  by  an  association  of  individuals, 
is  generally  dependent  upon  the  skill,  integrity,  and  sound 
judgment  of  a  single  mind,  of  such  executive  ability  and 
foresight  that  fatal  mistakes  will  be  avoided.  If  the  prin- 
cipal manager  be  a  man  of  inferior  ability,  no  amount  of 
capital  will  be  suflScient,  and  the  certainty  of  failure  will 
be  increased  by  the  larger  number  of  men  added  to  his 
management. 

"  5.  On  a  small  scale,  yes ;  on  a  large  scale,  no,  and  for 
the  reasons  just  stated.  Let  one  thousand  men,  all  good 
and  skilful  workmen  in  the  industries  of  iron  and  steel,  con- 
tribute five  hundred  dollars  each  for  the  construction  of  a 
plant,  under  an  agreement  that  they  do  their  own  work  and 
divide  the  profits.  In  these  thousand  men  there  would  be 
found  a  great  diversity  of  talent,  and,  what  is  worse,  there 
will  be  a  greater  diversity  of  opinion,  and  the  interests  be- 
ing equal,  the  voices  of  those  least  qualified  to  judge  would 
often  prevail  over  those  best  qualified  to  control  the  policy 
of  the  business,  and  determine  what  orders  to  receive  and 
what  to  decline.  So  great  would  be  the  embarrassments 
to  a  general  manager  having  a  thousand  equal  partners, 


108  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

that  no  mail  liavini^  the  qualifications  for  such  a  position 
would  take  it  with  its  responsibilities  either  for  motives  of 
profit  or  philanthropy;  and  yet  it  will  not  do  to  say  that 
even  such  an  organization  could  not  be  placed  in  the  hands 
of  a  management  which  would  in  a  single  instance  be  suc- 
cessful ;  but  the  chances  would  be  largely  against  it. 

"The  plan  which  I  have  proposed  for  our  granite  business 
at  Westerly  accompanies  this  letter,  and  explains  my  views 
as  well  as  I  can  do  by  writing  at  any  greater  length.*  I 
do  not  believe  that  deferring  the  dividend  for  a  longer 
period  than  one  year  would  be  practicable ;  and  if  capital 
guarantees  the  outstanding  accounts  and  credits  at  the  end 
of  the  year  for  a  fixed  consideration,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
go  into  liquidation  in  order  to  determine  accurately  the 
amount  due  to  each  man  employed,  neither  to  defer  the 
payment  to  such  distant  day  that  the  workman  would  fail 
to  appreciate  its  present  value.  I  am  not  ignorant  of  the 
mallet  and  chisel,  and  I  well  know  the  deferred  hopes,  the 
longings  and  aspirations  of  those  whose  only  capital  is 
muscle,  ambition,  and  industry.  I  shall  therefore  enter  into 
the  solution  of  the  questions  which  you  have  proposed  with 
a  hearty  good-will. 

"  Whether  Capital  or  Labor  deserves  the  higher  consider- 
ation at  the  hands  of  Congress  or  any  other  law-making 
power,  is  at  this  time  an  unfortunate  question.  Harmo- 
nize the  interests,  and  all  we  need  ask  of  Congress  is  to  let 
us  alone.  We  are  already  overwhelmed  in  this  country  by 
useless  legislation,  and  we  have  much  more  to  hope  from 
the  repeal  than  we  have  from  the  enactment  of  any  law. 
If  Congress  could  by  public  act  provide  that  working-men 
should  not  be  required  to  work  more  than  eight  hours  in 

*  Mr.  Batterson's  plan  is  fully  set  forth  in  tlie  chapter  on  " Piofit- 
shaiino;." 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  109 

a  day,  and  that  his  pay  should  he  five  dollars  for  eight 
hours'  labor,  such  a  law  would  be  crushed  under  its  own 
weight,  and  could  never  be  put  in  force  for  a  single  day. 
The  universal  law  of  supply  and  demand  is  superior  to  any 
law  which  can  be  enacted  by  Congress  or  any  other  power 
on  earth." 

H.  M.  Myers  &  Co.  (Limikd),  Beaver  Falls,  Pa. 

"In  our  opinion  strikes  and  lock-outs  are  not  a  necessitv, 
for  the  reason  that  strikes  and  lock-outs  result  in  loss,  and  in 
many  cases  very  great  loss,  to  all  parties  concerned.  There- 
fore we  repeat  that  strikes  and  lock-outs  are  not  a  necessity, 
unless  it  can  be  successfully  maintained  that  a  loss  to  all 
parties  interested  is  a  necessity,  which  we  think  cannot  be. 
Now  the  question  arises  here,  What  is  the  remedy  ?  In 
other  words,  What  is  the  best  way  and  means  by  which 
Labor  may  receive  its  just  reward  on  the  one  hand  and 
Capital  a  fair  return  on  the  other  ? 

"It  is  an  absolute  necessity,  in  our  opinion,  that  the  em- 
ployer and  employe  be  truly  honest  with  each  other  as  a 
basis  of  satisfactory  dealing  one  with  the  other — in  a  word, 
equity;  and  how  shall  we  ascertain  this?  This,  we  say,  is  a 
work  for  both  the  employer  and  employe,  in  order  that  they 
may  discover  a  more  satisfactory  way  of  dividing  the  gains 
or  profits  of  the  business.  Unfortunately,  as  is  too  often 
the  case,  the  workmen  insist  on  the  employer  doing  all  the 
work  of  trying  to  get  along  and  finding  out  what  is  the 
matter,  and  that  he  discover  the  remedy  therefor,  while 
they  (the  workmen)  propose  to  do  nothing  but  stand  still, 
as  in  case  of  strikes  and  lock-outs.  Now,  under  our  con- 
stitutional law  and  way  of  doing  things  in  tliis  country, 
there  are  but  three  ways  out  of  the  labor  trouble  as  be- 
tween Capital  and  Labor,  and  that  is — 1st.  That  the  em- 
ployer will   honestly  advance  or  reduce  wages  as  absolute 


110  THK    LABOR    I'KOBLEM. 

necessity  iiiay  require,  without  being  askcii  to  do  so.  2il. 
That  in  case  of  difference  of  opinion  between  the  work- 
men and  employer  as  to  the  necessity  of  reducing,  that 
three  or  five  of  its  best,  honest  citizens,  who  are  entirely  dis- 
interested parties  on  either  side,  be  selected,  to  whom  both 
sides  shall  state  tlieir  case  as  if  under  oath,  and  with  the 
understanding  that  the  decision  of  the  board  of  arbitration 
so  selected  shall  be  final  and  binding  on  each  party  for  a 
term  of  six  months  or  twelve  months  as  the  case  may  be, 
3d.  That  in  case  one  or  both  parties  refuse  to  accept  the 
opinion  and  decision  of  disinterested  parties  as  to  tlie 
matter  of  difference  existing  between  employer  and  em- 
ployes, then  in  that  case  that  the  employer  and  employes 
embrace  their  only  sovereign  rights  under  the  constitutional 
laws  of  these  United  States,  namely — that  the  employer 
does  his  own  work  (that  is,  providing  he  cannot  get  any- 
body else  to  do  it  for  him),  and  that  the  workmen  go  into 
business  for  themselves  as  manufacturers,  which  is  their  free 
right  and  privilege  to  do.  And  just  here  we  will  say  that 
so  long  as  this  right  to  engage  in  manufacturing,  or  in  pur- 
suit of  any  lawful  business  by  which  to  get  gain  and  profit, 
is  vouchsafed  to  every  individual  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  no  man  has  a  right  to  resort  to  violence  or  force  to 
compel  any  one  to  pay  more  for  his  labor  than  he  is  will- 
ing to  pay,  as  the  Golden  Rule,  which  demands  that  '  As 
ye  would  that  others  should  do  unto  you  do  ye  even  also 
unto  them,' forbids  it. 

"  Is  productive  co-operation  practical  ?  We  answer.  Yes, 
most  certainly.  We  say  that  productive  co-operation  or 
co-operative  manufacturing  is  as  practical  and  legitimate  as 
the  co-operation  of  50,000,000  of  people  called  the  United 
States  Government.  It  is  indeed  tire  only  practical,  legiti- 
mate, and  common-sense  way  of  doing  business,  for  the  rea- 
son that  where  there  is  union  there  is  strength,  and  for  the 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    Ill 

further  reason  that  where  there  is  a  strict  regard  for  the 
rights  of  all  inen  there  peace  may  be  found;  and  that  the 
one  and  only  reason  why  co-operative  manufacturing  con- 
cerns have  failed  so  often  is  the  stubborn  fact  that  nearly 
every  member  concerned  in  the  co  -  operative  enterprises 
heretofore  have  invariably  insisted  on  being  bell-sheep  or 
general,  which  has  as  often  resulted  in  defeat — and  it  is  no 
wonder,  as  the  best  array  that  ever  was  marshalled  would 
be  defeated  in  battle  in  case  all  insisted  on  being  generals. 
The  secret  of  success  in  co-operation  in  our  opinion  would 
be  simply  this,  that  in  case  of  a  proposed  co-operative  en- 
terprise, whatever  it  might  be,  that  members  of  such  co- 
operative institution  elect  such  men  to  manage  it  in  whom 
they  have  implicit  confidence  as  to  their  honesty  and  abili- 
ty to  manage  such  business,  and  then  stand  aloof,  never  in- 
terfering in  any  way,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  unjust  criti- 
cisms or  fault-finding,  but  on  the  other  hand  sustain  and 
support  them  in  every  way,  directly  and  indirectly  ;  and  then 
if  the  men  so  selected  are  the  right  men  in  the  right  place 
success  is  assured,  all  other  things  being  equal,  as  against 
individual  manufacturers.  But  in  fine,  we  do  not  presume 
that  any  suggestions  that  we  have  made  or  can  make,  even 
if  strictly  adhered  to  and  carried  out,  would  be  a  perfect 
remedy  or  cure  for  all  the  ills  that  the  laboring  class  as 
well  as  the  manufacturing  class  seem  to  be  heir  to.  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  so  long  as  unfair  and  unjust  competition  is 
carried  on  by  the  maimfacturers  and  tradesinon,  by  selling 
goods  for  less  than  they  can  produce  them,  and  at  the  same 
time  pay  good,  honest  wages  to  their  laborers,  and  their 
creditors  dollar  for  dollar,  on  the  one  hand,  while  on  the  oth- 
er hand  workmen,  manufacturers,  and  tradesmen  are  spend- 
ing Si, 600,000, 000  every  year  for  strong  drink  and  tobac- 
co, we  cannot  expect  anything  but  more  or  less  misery  or 
agony;  indeed  we  have  no  right  to  expect  anything  better." 


112  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 


C.  W.  Crawford,  of  the  Brazil  {Ind.)  Foundry  and  Machine- 
shops. 

"1.  Literally,  no!  But  strikes  are  becoming  more  fre- 
quent every  year,  and  since  might  is  considered  right  they 
will  probably  continue.  In  the  sweet  by-and-b\',  when  both 
parties  learn  to  treat  each  other  decently,  and  rely  on  their 
merits  and  the  markets  for  success,  and  combinations  be- 
come odious,  strikes  will  not  be  necessary. 

"  2.  No.  '  A  man  convinced  against  his  will  is  of  the 
same  opinion  still.'  No  man  of  any  dignity  and  ability  is 
willing  to  be  governed  by  the  opinion  of  a  committee.  If 
he  submits  at  all  it  is  with  a  protest. 

"  3.  If  all  parties  acted  honestly  with  each  other,  there 
is  no  fairer  way  than  the  wage  system  ;  the  hope  of  a  better 
plan  is  remote. 

"4.  Industrial  partnership  is  very  complicated  and  un- 
.satisfactory,  except  with  foremen  and  heads  of  departments. 
Mutual  participation  of  all  concerned  is  not  practicable; 
it  cuts  off  the  right  to  discharge  for  cause.  Employers 
are  always  on  the  alert  to  procure  better  workmen,  and  the 
right  to  make  changes  is  inalienable.  Workmen  who  are 
paid  the  highest  wages,  who  have  no  investment,  and  incur 
no  risk,  have  little  right  to  a  division  of  the  profits.  It  sa- 
vors of  comtnnnism. 

"  5.  Productive  co-operation  is  practicable  and  commend- 
able, but  like  every  other  business  enterprise  its  success  de- 
pends on  the  ability  and  integrity  of  an  individual.  It  is 
no  argument  against  co-operation  that  it  sometimes  fails. 
Other  business  concerns  fail  sometimes.  It  all  depends  on 
the  economical  management  of  the  head  of  the  concern, 
whether  there  are  fifty  owners  or  only  one." 


CHAPTER  V. 

A  SYMPOSIUM  ON  SEVERAL  PHASES   OF  THE  LABOR 

QUESTION— CwttinMt'rf. 

VIEWS  OF  WORKING-MEN. 

Daniel  McLaughlin,  Esq.,  Braidwood,  111.,  President  Miners' 
State  Protective  Organization. 

"  With  pleasure  will  give  you  my  answers  to  your  ques- 
tions, not  as  a  theorist  but  as  one  who  has  had  fifty  years 
of  practical  experience  as  a  laborer  in  the  coal  and  iron 
mines  of  Great  Britain  and  America. 

"  1.  Yes,  they  are  the  fruits  of  that  system  surely,  and  I 
am  afraid  they  will  continue  to  be  so  long  as  man  is  con- 
sidered a  commodity  to  be  bought  and  sold  like  other  mer- 
chandise that  is  governed  by  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand. 

"  2.  No,  not  necessarily  so.  But  a  board  of  arbitration, 
properly  constituted  of  honest,  intelligent  men,  with  pow- 
er to  examine  the  books  of  any  establishment  where  a  dis- 
pute existed,  to  ascertain  the  legal  amount  of  money  in- 
vested (no  watered  stock  to  be  taken  into  consideration) 
and  the  net  earnings  of  the  establishment,  with  the  power 
to  enforce  its  decision,  would  in  my  judgment  prevent 
many  great  strikes  and  lock-outs,  and  bring  more  security 
to  Capital  and  a  better  remuneration  to  the  laborer. 

"  3.  Certainly,  that  is  the  great  hope  entertained  by 
every  thoughtful  and  intelligent  working-man,  and  is  the 
aim  and  object  of  many  of  our  trades  organizations. 

"4.  Yes,  that  is  one  of  the  remedies  which,  if  honestly 


114  Tin:   I.AUOK   pkuulem. 

applied,  would  bring  forth  good  results,  create  better  feel- 
ing between  employer  and  employed,  more  harmony,  less 
wrangling,  and  secure  for  the  laborer  more  of  the  fruits 
of  his  own  toil, 

"  5.  Yes,  and  is  carried  on  successfully  in  many  branches 
of  industry  in  our  country  at  the  present.  Of  course  it  is 
on  a  small  scale  compared  with  the  millions  invested  by 
corporations,  but  evidently  large  enough  to  prove  that  it  is 
practicable.  However,  it  will  be  many  years  before  true 
co-operation  can  be  applied  in  this  country  in  a  way  that 
■will  bring  much  relief  to  the  great  army  of  producers. 
Many  things  stand  in  the  way  of  the  successful  carrying 
out  of  true  co-operation.  1st.  Our  education  is  not  what 
it  should  be  in  that  direction,  hence  our  ignorance,  preju- 
dice, and  jealousies  stand  in  the  way  of  our  advancement 
for  the  present,  2d.  The  laws  of  our  States,  with  very 
few  exceptions,  are  not  favorable  to  the  workings  of  true 
co-operation,  3d,  Money  invested  in  private  enterprise 
as  well  as  large  corporations  is  prejudiced  against  true 
co-operation  among  the  masses,  and  throws  many  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  its  success ;  such  has  been  my  experience  in 
Great  Britain  and  America,  But  I  can  observe  a  great 
change  taking  place  in  the  minds  of  the  intelligent  and 
well-to-do  citizens  of  our  country  in  regard  to  the  laborer's 
true  position  and  his  relations  to  society,  and  like  many 
others  of  my  fellow  working-men  I  hope  that  the  time  is 
near  at  hand  when  the  ignorant  selfishness  and  greed  of 
man  will  not  be  allowed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  any  change 
in  our  industrial  system  calculated  to  elevate  and  improve 
the  moral  and  social  condition  of  the  toiling  masses  of  our 
country,  whose  labors  are  the  foundation-stone  of  all  our 
greatness  and  grandeur,  and  the  bulwark  of  our  national 
liberty," 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OK    THE    LABOR    yUESTIOX.  115 

RoBEKT  Bennet,  Esq.,  Master  Workman  of  the  Illinois  State 
Assembly  Knights  of  Labor. 

"  My  work  for  the  past  twenty-four  years  has  been  with 
tlie  mallet  and  chisel,  but  very  little  experience  with  the 
pen;  nevertheless,  I  will  cheerfully  contribute  a  few  thoughts 
on  the  subject  named. 

"  1.  The  present  wage  system  pi'oduces  strikes  just  as 
naturally  as  whiskey  produces  drunkenness,  misery,  and 
crime,  capitalistic  combinations  depriving  labor  of  its  God- 
ordained  increase,  dictating  its  remuneration,  and  rendering 
it  impossible  for  the  toilers  to  live  in  accordance  with  the 
aspirations  and  impulses  of  their  better  nature.  The  basis 
of  our  present  wage  system  is  cruel  and  vicious,  the  work 
of  designing  men.  One  illustration  may  suffice.  Our  mar- 
tyred President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  his  first  message  to 
Congress  said,  'There  is  one  point  to  which  I  desire  to  call 
the  attention  of  Congress  and  the  people.  It  is  the  attempt 
that  is  being  made  to  place  Capital  upon  an  equal  footing 
with,  if  not  above,  Labor  in  the  structure  of  government.  .  .  . 
Labor  is  prior  to  and  independent  of  Capital.  Capital  is 
but  the  fruit  of  labor,  and  never  could  have  existed  if  labor 
had  not  first  existed.  Therefore,  labor  deserves  much  the 
higher  consideration.'  'The  attempt  that  is  being  made.' 
This  language  is  significant  and  full  of  meaning,  indicating 
a  scheme  or  plot.  For  what?  To  place  Labor  at  the  mercy 
of  Capital,  to  take  from  the  toiling  millions  an  unjust  share 
of  the  wealth  tliey  create,  by  way  of  watered  stock  on  rail- 
roads, our  financial  system,  truck  stores,  contract  convict 
labor,  importation  of  cheap  labor  under  contracts  from 
Europe  and  Asia,  female  and  child  labor  to  compete  with 
manual  labor,  the  result  of  improved  machinery,  the  enact- 
ment of  laws  (State  and  National)  in  favor  of  corporations, 
and  laying  burdens  grievous  to  be  borne  by  the  industrial 


HG  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

people.  These  are  some  of  the  causes  that  produce  discon,- 
teiit,  poverty,  crime,  and  strikes.  During  the  strike  at  Gal- 
veston, Texas,  recently,  business  of  all  branches  was  sus- 
pended, and  the  cry  went  forth  that  innocent  people  were 
injured  thereby.  It  was  not  so;  an  injury  to  one  is  the 
concern  of  all,  and  the  people  must  learn  this  fact  or  suf- 
fer the  consequences ;  this  is  an  immutable  principle.  The 
Lord  said  unto  Cain, '  Where  is  Abel,  thy  brother?'  And 
he  said,  'I  know  not,  am  I  my  brother's  keeper?'  So  his- 
tory teaches  that  men  have  been  blinded  by  greed  and  self- 
ishness, seeking  their  individual  advancement,  overlooking 
the  rights  of  others,  and  violating  the  rights  of  those  they 
deem  helpless. 

"  2.  Arbitration  is  a  proper  means  to  adopt  for  the  set- 
tlement of  disputes  and  grievances  between  employer  and 
employes,  but  this  method  is  only  successful  where  labor  or- 
ganizations have  the  power  to  enforce  it.  Generally  the 
employer  claims  that  he  has  the  right  to  pay  such  wages, 
employ  those  he  chooses,  make  such  rules  and  regulate  the 
hours  of  labor  as  to  him  shall  seem  the  best.  On  the  other 
side,  the  working-people  claim  the  right  to  say  what  their 
wages  shall  be,  also  the  right  to  say  they  will  not  submit 
to  a  system  that  will  degrade  and  pauperize  them,  and 
when  no  longer  able  to  work,  to  be  sent  to  the  poor- 
house  or  become  objects  of  charity.  Much  can  be  said  in 
favor  of  arbitration. 

"  3.  The  profits  arising  from  productive  and  distributive 
industry  belong  to  the  capital  invested  and  the  labor  em- 
ployed. Labor  is  entitled  to  the  profits  just  as  much  as 
the  capitalist.  God  created  the  earth  and  all  that  therein 
is.  He  gives  the  sunshine  and  the  rain,  everything  for  the 
good  of  man,  and  by  labor  the  fruits  of  the  earth  are 
brought  forth  in  rich  abundance  for  our  sustenance  and 
comfort.     Labor  alone  gives  life  and  value  to  Capital,  and 


SEVERAL    PEIASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  117 

the  men  who  go  down  in  the  mine  to  bring  to  the  surface 
of  the  earth  coal  and  metal,  those  who  work  with  macliin- 
ery,  in  fact  all  who  toil  and  spin,  are  daily  exposed  to  hard- 
ships and  to  the  loss  of  limb,  or  to  be  cruslied  to  death  in 
their  employment,  are  justly  entitled  to  their  share  of  the 
profits  arising  therefrom.  Herein  lies  the  remedy.  When 
a  man  knows  he  will  share  in  the  profits  of  his  labor  he 
goes  cheerfully  to  work  and  watches  carefully  the  inter- 
est of  such  firm.  The  result  of  which  will  be  the  moral 
and  financial  improvement  of  all  concerned.  Yes,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  right,  labor  deserves  much  the  higher  consider- 
ation." 

Jonx  Ehmann,  Secretary  Ohio  Valley  Trades  Assembly,  Wheel- 
ing, West  Va. 

"  1.  They  undoubtedly  are  the  results  of  it  in  its  present 
form.  So  long  as  labor  is  looked  upon  as  a  mere  com- 
modity which  is  fully  paid  with  the  scanty  wages  doled 
out  to  it  under  supply  and  demand,  strikes  and  lock-outs 
cannot  be  avoided. 

"2.  Not  in  its  present  narrow  sense.  Power  will  never 
arbitrate.  It  looks  upon  the  attempt  of  an  outsider  to 
decide  questions  of  business  for  them  very  much  as  it 
does  upon  the  existence  and  demands  of  unions.  Arbi- 
tration may  be  resorted  to  by  weak  unions  or  individual 
capitalists  fearful  of  an  expensive  strike,  but  otherwise  nei- 
ther side  favors  it. 

"  3.  Yes,  because  the  present  system  is  a  disgrace  to 
common-sense.  The  first  step  towards  the  realization  of 
a  better  basis  is  the  organization  of  trades-unions.  Wher- 
ever they  exist  they  uphold  and  increase  a  better  standard 
of  wages  and  living.  They  are  becoming  the  vehicles  of 
practical  self-government  of  the  working-class.  Through 
better  wages  comes  a  more  intelligent  and  broadfr-mindcd 


118  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

class,  which,  througli  the  drill  and  discipline  of  unionism, 
will  enable  the  gradual  realization  of  industrial  self-govern- 
ment. 

"  4.  That  would  be  a  desirable  intermediary  step.  It 
would,  however,  still  be  a  limited  industrial  monarchy. 
Capital  would  still  have  a  quasi  veto  that  would,  however, 
not  stand  in  the  face  of  earnest  and  determined  demand 
by  the  organized  working-class.  It  would  be  the  shell  of 
the  old  system  with  the  soul  of  the  new  struggling  within 
it.  It  would,  however,  do  much  to  regulate  production 
and  distribution,  and  either  mitigate  or  entirely  do  away 
with  the  blundering  crisis  of  to-day. 

"  5.  Not  as  it  is  at  present  attempted,  by  little  knots 
and  groups  of  men.  They  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  market 
fluctuations,  which  only  syndicates  of  capitalists  can  with- 
stand. They  could  not  compete  with  men  who  already 
have  every  avenue  guarded  and  manned.  It  is  practicable 
when  attempted  on  a  scale  that  would  make  a  market  of 
the  co-operator's  own  needs  supplied  by  themselves.  A 
few  shoemakers,  tailors,  farmers,  moulders,  etc.,  could  not 
exchange  mutually  ;  but  a  shoemakers'  union,  tailors'  union, 
farmers'  union,  etc.,  could  form  a  miniature  or  nucleus  of 
an  industrial  world,  in  which  markets  would  balance  pro- 
duction, independent  of  outside  influences.  The  larger 
the  scale  on  which  productive  co-operation  is  attempted 
the  more  certain  is  the  attainment  of  the  end  sought.  Un- 
ionism must  come  first.  They  will  enforce  respect  for  the 
human  side  of  labor.  Then  will  probably  come  the  par- 
ticipation of  labor  in  the  profits  of  production,  and  finally 
the  assumption  of  all  production  and  distribution  by  unions, 
with  executive  officers  performing  the  simplified  exchanges 
now  blunderingly  essayed  by  individual  capitalists." 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.     119 

James  K.  IVIagie,  Chicago,  111. 

"  I  am  convinced  that  no  adequate  settlement  of  the 
propositions  involved  can  be  made  short  of  governmental 
co-operation.  Arbitration  and  division  of  profits,  while 
systems  and  interests  remain  the  same,_are  only  present 
makeshifts,  involving  perpetual  conflict.  It  is  not  because 
men  are  worse  that  these  labor  diflficulties  arise,  but  it  is 
because  civilization  has  advanced  and  the  rights  of  man 
are  more  clearly  discerned.  There  was  a  time  when  the 
hideousness  of  slavery  was  scarcely  discernible,  but  there 
came  a  time  when  its  only  cure  was  civil  equality,  estab- 
lished by  government.  When  debt,  rents,  and  corporation 
dividends  are  abolished,  and  the  government  supplies  the 
place  of  corporations,  labor  will  then  receive  its  own  ;  not, 
however,  by  permission,  privilege,  or  favor  of  any  man,  but 
by  a  law  of  trade  and  distribution  as  impartial  as  the  sun- 
shine. Prudence  dictates  no  sudden  revolution  of  society, 
hence  all  remedies  should  be  gradual.  I  favor,  as  the  first 
measure  of  governmental  relief,  the  ultimate  extinction  of 
all  debt,  then  railway  ownership  and  control,  and  so  on  to 
the  end  of  the  chapter." 

Fred  Shurr,  Esq.,  Printer,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 

"  1.  Strikes  and  lock-outs  are  not  necessary  features  of 
the  wage  system.  They  are  the  cause  of  much  misery  to 
the  employes  and  great  loss  to  the  manufacturers. 

"  2.  Down  with  the  red  flag.  When  nations  can  settle 
their  difliiculties  by  arbitration,  why  should  not  Capital  and 
Labor  do  likewise? 

"  3  and  4.  After  thirty-seven  years'  labor  at  the  priiiting- 
tra'de,  and  donating  more  or  less  per  day  towards  building 
up  the  capital  of  dilTercnt  ofiiccs,  I  have  come  to  the  con- 
clusion  that  the  wago-workcr  should   have  a  certain   [ht- 


120  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

cenUngc  of  the  actual  profits,  let  it  be  ever  so  small ;  it  will 
cr'ive  him  an  interest  which  he  never  felt  before,  and,  I  have 
no  doubt,  do  away  with  strikes  and  lock-outs  altogether. 
As  labor  cannot  do  witliout  capital,  and  to  produce  capital 
requires  labor,  they  would  then  go  hand  in  hand — united. 

"5.  I  have  had  some  experience.  In  1861,  being  one 
of  fourteen  striking  printers,  we  resolved  to  start  a  co-oper- 
ative daily  —  eight  column  folio.  After  gathering  in  all 
the  shekels  and  counting  them  over,  we  found,  to  our  great 
joy,  that  the  amount  reached  $76.  We  engaged  an  outfit 
of  second-hand  type  on  I.  O.  U.,  and  ran  up  the  edition  to 
954  in  seventeen  days — money  all  gone — no  coal,  and  it 
being  winter — so  we  formed  ourselves  into  a  committee  of 
collection,  but  through  some  oversight  we  failed  to  set  the 
day  for  reporting.  The  committee  not  yet  having  report- 
ed, I  shall  wait  until  I  hear  from  my  partners  before  ex- 
pressing my  views  on  co-operation." 

P.  H.  DoNKELLY,  Esq.,  General  Secretary  of  tlie  Illinois  Miners' 
ProUctke  Association. 

"  I  look  upon  the  acceptance  of  the  principle  of  arbitra- 
tion for  settling  disputes  and  as  a  preventive  against  their 
occurring,  by  the  laboring  men  of  thought  and  the  em- 
ployers disposed  to  do  what  is  fair  by  their  employes,  as 
being  a  hopeful  sign  in  this  conflict  between  Labor  and 
Capital.  Such  meetings  as  the  one  just  held  in  Pittsburg, 
Pa.,  between  the  national  executive  board  of  our  organiza- 
tion and  representatives  of  a  large  number  of  coal-mining 
and  shipping  companies,  to  discuss  their  proper  relation- 
ship, aiming  to  decide  upon  what  should  be  a  fair  price 
for  coal  in  the  market  and  a  fair  price  for  the  labor  en- 
gaged in  its  production,  all  trying  to  be  controlled  by  the 
great  principle  of  reason,  which  is  arbitration.  Without 
reason  there  is  no  arbitration,  and  arbitration  means  a  stop 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.     121 

to  those  prolonged  and  ruinous  stmo'gles  between  employ- 
ers and  employes,  a  shaking  of  hands  across  the  bloody 
chasm.  Arbitration  proper  is  the  missing  link  between 
Capital  and  Labor.  With  that  principle  firmly  established 
we  may  hope  for  a  more  satisfactory  and  equitable  division 
of  the  profits  arising  from  industrial  enterprises ;  certainly 
a  sort  of  industrial  partnership  would  be  one  of  the  lead- 
ing results  of  its  acceptance.  All  those  much-hoped-for 
beauties  are  embodied  in  arbitration,  providing  the  same 
is  understood  and  accepted  in  its  fullest  significance :  the 
employes  determining  that  in  the  shop  not  one  nut,  bolt, 
or  nail,  or  scrap  of  iron,  shall  be  wasted  that  we  can  save; 
the  miner  in  the  mines  determining  that  not  one  cent's 
worth  of  the  supplies  furnished  or  material  used  shall  be 
wasted ;  even  the  farm  laborer  being  ever  watchful  of  his 
employer's  property,  and  not  allowing  one  ear  of  corn  to 
go  to  waste ;  the  employers  agreeing,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  in  proportion  to  the  percentage  realized  on  their  in- 
vestments the  wages  and  comforts  of  their  employes  shall 
be  increased.  Arbitration  means  education,  and  education 
means  a  proper  maintenance  of  nothing  but  just  principles. 
Both  mean  humanity.  Education,  arbitration,  and  human- 
ity is  what  we  expect  embodied  in  the  arbitration  of  trou- 
ble, etc.,  between  Capital  and  Labor.  It  is  coming  fast, 
and  nothing  short  of  it  will  do.  Reading-rooms,  literary 
societies,  and  dcbating-schools  are  being  established  in  con- 
nection with  our  labor  organizations,  and  surely  this  is  a 
hopeful  sign.  There  is  a  gleam  in  the  gloom.  '  There  is 
a  light  in  the  sky.'     Let  it  come !" 

Fred  Woodkow,  "  The  Samaritan  of  Labor." 

"1.  Strikes  and  lock-outs  are  methods  of  modern  pro- 
test and  protection.  Reasonable  or  unreasonable,  they  are 
the  initial  steps  to  conciliation  or  conflict.     They  indicate 


122  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

a  suspension  of  business  relationships  on  the  ground  of  ,i 
grievance,  and  are  mostly  temporary — sometimes  necessary, 
and  generally  hurtful.  If  there  is  value  in  time  and  no 
cessation  in  the  daily  need  of  bread  and  butter,  then  the 
loss  of  either  or  of  both  is  at  its  best  but  a  parenthesis  of 
calamity.  The  wage  system  is  not  of  necessity  the  root 
of  the  matter,  though  a  misconception  of  its  conditions 
and  a  forgctfulness  of  its  necessary  fluctuations,  and  the 
blind  lack  of  conciliatory  methods  in  its  adjustments,  are 
the  virus  of  the  poison,  and  until  these  causes  are  removed 
and  the  statesmanship  of  industry  equal  to  its  duties,  the 
strike  and  the  lock-out  are  inevitable.  The  system  of 
wages  is  as  just  and  necessary  as  the  cash  payment  of  a 
grocer's  or  a  butcher's  bill — the  dollars  that  represent  the 
market  value  of  food,  or  a  week's  work,  each  subject  to  in- 
crease or  decrease,  as  the  mercury  in  a  barometer  will  rise 
or  fall  with  a  scorch  from  the  south  or  a  blizzard  from  the 
north.  So  in  all  financial  agreements  the  circle  of  values 
may  vary  from  the  girth  of  a  wagon-wheel  to  the  rim  of 
a  dime,  and  in  the  abuse  of  this  fact — ignorance  on  the 
one  side  and  selfishness  on  the  other — germinates  injustice, 
ill-feeling,  and  industrial  anarchy.  The  combinations  and 
contracts  that  figure  for  one  side  and  sacrifice  the  other — 
the  bricks  made  without  straw  for  monopoly  Pharaohs — 
the  grinding  of  the  wheel  that  hums  with  grain  one  way 
and  with  chaff  on  the  other — these  things  are  among  the 
criminal  causes  of  strikes  and  lock-outs. 

"Again,  on  the  reverse  side,  the  professional  agitator, 
the  slick  demagogue,  the  two-legged  dogs  that  bark  over 
bones  when  the  meat  of  the  same  is  inside  their  ribs — 
these  are  not  without  guilt  in  the  manufacture  of  discon- 
tent and  antagonisms.  I  speak  only  of  the  insincere  and 
selfish,  for  the  pure-minded  and  enlightened  agitator  is  as 
noble  a  fio;ure  in  industrial  life  as  was  Luther  in  the  Refor- 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    123 

mation  and  Gladstone  in  political  enfranchisement — to  de- 
spise or  ostracize  such  men  is  to  butt  one's  brains  against 
Divine  granite.  The  wrongs  of  labor,  God  knows,  have 
been  many,  and  its  blind  methods  of  protest  not  always 
wise ;  but  think  of  it,  O  man,  and  see  it  in  its  tragedy  of 
want  and  rags,  with  bare  ribs  and  broken  spirit,  and  won- 
der, if  you  can,  at  its  retaliation  and  sullen  conspiracies. 
Accepting  things  as  they  are,  and  taking  into  account  class 
distrust — business  greed  and  general  ignorance — the  strike 
and  the  lock-out  are  in  keeping  with  the  conditions. 

"  2.  It  is  in  all  matters  of  dispute,  as  being  the  only  ju- 
dicial method  yet  suggested.  In  this  principle  is  unified 
the  interests  of  both  parties,  and  to  my  mind  is  a  doctrine 
in  the  gospel  of  industry  worthy  of  being  the  eleventh 
commandment.  It  recognizes  no  class,  hate,  or  ostracism. 
It  assumes  and  acts  on  the  idea  that  on  the  floor  of  justice 
the  hobnail  boot  and  the  golden  slipper  are  on  a  common 
level,  and  is  a  phase  of  the  evolution  which  by  education, 
liberty,  and  the  higher  ambitions  produces  scholars  and 
thinkers  at  the  forge  and  the  work-bench — a  new  strata  in 
civilization,  under  which  the  slave  and  his  master  will  yet 
be  but  a  dead  bone  and  a  fossil.  It  brings  reason  to  the 
adjustment  of  difficulties  where  our  grandfather  brought  a 
firebrand  and  a  brickbat,  and  to-day  there  is  no  question, 
even  in  national  politics,  so  vital  in  its  import  or  so  grand 
in  its  issues  as  this  self-same  idea  of  arbitration.  It  is  at 
the  causes  of  strikes  and  lock-outs  as  an  axe  at  the  root  of 
a  tree,  and  a  knife  at  a  cancer.  Of  its  adoption  there  is 
no  doubt,  though  its  details  and  methods  may  be  matters 
of  experience  and  time.  It  has  its  enemies,  as  had  the  act 
of  emancipation.  It  hurts  the  business  prospects  of  the 
demagogue  and  takes  away  the  tin  horn  with  which  lie 
called  his  hounds  and  hunted  the  game,  and  it  removes 
the  last  rivet  in  the  armor  of  fcndalism,  bv  which  the  pride 


124  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

of  a  riantagenet  keeps  the  '  common  herd '  of  mankind 
in  distance  and  disdain.     The  plaster  covers  the  sore. 

"  3  and  4.  The  answer  to  these  questions  must  be  largely 
predictive^-the  accomplishment  of  what  is  implied  be- 
longing to  an  evolution  of  industrial  conditions  not  yet 
matured.  That  they  suggest  what  is  not  only  possible, 
but,  as  events  are  trending,  very  probable,  is  apparent  to 
the  student  of  economics  and  the  thinker  who  reads  the 
'  writing  on  the  wall.'  I  confess  to  an  established  convic- 
tion of  its  outcome.  During  the  time  in  which  I  was  in 
daily  contact  with  all  degrees  and  kinds  of  poverty  and 
misfortune,  and  was  a  representative  of  one  who  largely 
and  wisel\"  endeavored  to  allay  it,  I  could  but  see  that  what 
was  in  truth  the  fruition  of  benevolence — beautiful,  good, 
and  rare — it  was  nevertheless  but  the  predicate  of  some 
system  in  which  the  need  of  such  charities  would  be  ob- 
viated. 

"  Philanthropy  with  all  its  goodness  and  self-denial  was 
but  putting  new  shingles  on  an  old  house.  The  want  that 
came  of  misfortune — the  wolf  at  the  door  of  him  whose 
fingers  were  crooked  and  back  bent  with  years  of  unremit- 
ting toil — were  facts  not  to  be  explained  with  a  homily  on 
charity,  nor  satisfactorily  accounted  for  by  the  gift  of  a 
ticket  for  soup  or  an  order  for  coal.  There  must  be  some- 
thing wrong  with  the  bucket  that  is  ever  at  the  pump  but 
holds  no  water.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  one  germ  of  vi- 
tality in  what  is  called  'socialism'  is  its  recognition  of  the 
claims  of  labor  to  such  copartnership  or  compensation  by 
which  the  need  of  a  poor-house  in  old  age  and  a  Samari- 
tan's shilling  in  misfortune  is  unknown.  The  extremes 
and  extravagances  of  socialism  have  vetoed  the  grain  of 
justice  that  lies  in  the  peck  of  chaff;  nevertheless,  the 
forefoot  of  progress  is  on  the  line  of  a  radical  change  in 
manv   of  our   traditional  customs,  reverent  with  age  and 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    125 

environed  with  history,  but  as  the  greatest  discoveries  are 
made  in  detail,  inch  by  inch,  and  ounce  by  ounce,  so  indus- 
trial progress  into  copartnership  will  be  as  natural  as  the 
growth  of  an  apple  or  the  hatching  of  an  egg.  In  other 
divisions  of  life,  fusion  is  a  formative  fact.  The  arts  that 
made  a  palace  exclusive  are  on  the  walls  of  our  cottages  ; 
the  literature  that  kept  knowledge  on  a  ducal  shelf  or  un- 
der a  silk  hat,  is  cheaper  than  coal.  Macaulay  graces  a 
dinner -can,  Huxley  a  tool -chest,  and  the  harmonies  of 
Handel  and  Mozart  are  heard  where  pork  and  beans  are  the 
daily  fare ;  tastes  are  formed  and  ideas  evoked  that  make 
the  peasant  of  to-day  richer  by  far  than  the  Tudors  of  the 
past,  and  as  part  of  this  levelling  programme — the  division 
of  profits  in  industrial  enterprise,  the  pendulum  is  swing- 
ing to  the  hour. 

"  5.  The  principle  of  co-operation,  so  far  as  applied  and 
honestly  carried  out,  is  sound  and  wholesome.  Mutual  in- 
terest and  mutual  trust  are  its  basis.  It  cannot  exclude  all 
the  evils  of  trade  now  existing,  but  it  can  save  the  poultry 
if  it  fails  to  kill  the  fox.  I  have  seen  failures  in  its  enter- 
prises, owing  to  dishonest  officers,  want  of  business  tact, 
and  the  same  class  of  vices  that  make  fat  rogues  and  lean 
victims.  The  right  and  justice  of  any  enterprise  cannot 
insure  the  prudence  and  care  necessary  to  market  the  eggs 
without  breaking  them.  Co  -  operation  as  advocated  by 
Ilolyoake  and  carried  on  in  Englalid  is  a  success.  Here 
the  spirit  of  bossism  and  the  haste  to  be  rich  are  antago- 
nistic to  its  development.  The  capital  I  in  American  life 
is  the  leading  letter  in  the  alphabet.  The  humble  residue 
submit  and  follow.  Selfishness  in  all  its  possible  ramifica- 
tions is  the  curse  and  vice  of  the  nation.  If  ever  it  sinks, 
the  millstone  of  avarice  will  be  on  its  neck.  Co-f)peration 
in  these  antagonizing  conditions  is  at  a  disadvantage,  and 
has  a  long  ladder  to  climb  to  reach  the  apple.     Its  i)rinci- 


126  TllK    LAUOK    PKOHLKM. 

pie  is  beneficent,  equable,  reduces  the  causes  of  discontent, 
gives  industry  additional  dignity,  and  is  in  its  own  line  of 
operation  a  near  though  partial  solution  of  the  problem 
of  civilization." 

Ethelbert  Stewart,  Decatur,  III. 

"  I  cannot  say  that  my  views  are  representative  of  the 
working-men  as  a  class ;  yet  so  coraniendabie  is  your  pur- 
pose of  giving  your  readers  a  symposium  upon  the  indus- 
trial question,  in  which  shall  be  represented  the  latest 
phases  of  thought  from  all  points  of  view,  that  I  willingly 
contribute  my  mite  towards  the  solution  of  the  questions 
you  propound. 

"  1.  Under  a  competitive  wage  system  the  iron  law  of 
wages  is  that  they  tend  towards  and  eventually  reach  the 
lowest  point  of  possible  subsistence.  The  operation  of  this 
law  will  be  fought  at  every  inch.  While  it  is  true  labor 
gains  nothing  by  strikes ;  while  it  is  true  men  need  not 
strike — perhaps  ought  not  to  strike — it  is  just  as  true  that 
they  will  strike.  It  is  an  inherent  feature  of  the  competi- 
tive wage  system  that  in  times  of  depression  men  with 
small  families  will  work  for  less  than  men  with  large  fami- 
lies, thereby  displacing  them.  Single  men  displace  married 
men,  children  displace  men  and  women,  and  Italians,  Huns, 
Poles,  and  Chinese,  who,  through  long  centuries  of  oppres- 
sion, have  learned  to  live  on  almost  nothing,  at  last  dis- 
place even  the  children.  Under  the  wage  system  employ- 
ers will  hire  their  labor  where  they  can  get  it  cheapest. 
Reductions  in  wages  will  result  in  strikes ;  demands  for 
increase  in  wages  will  result  in  lock-outs.  Imported  labor- 
ers and  militia  to  guard  them  will  follow.  There  is  no  use 
to  say  these  things  are  immoral  and  wrong.  When  cents 
and  sentiment  clash  in  the  American  mind  you  can  depend 
upon  cents  as  the   victor.     We  have  to  deal  with  human 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QTESTION'.  127 

nature  as  it  is,  not  as  it  ought  to  be.  While  self-preser- 
vation continues  to  be  the  tirst  law  of  nature,  strikes  and 
lock-outs  will  be  necessary  features  of  the  wage  system. 

"  2.  No.  Arbitration  will  do  as  a  pain-killer.  It  offers 
relief  from  the  agonies  of  strikes  and  lock-outs  for  a  time. 
I  am  strong!  V  in  favor  of  a  compulsory  arbitration  law  that 
shall  render  strikes  impossible,  but  I  am  not  willing  to 
concede  that  arbitration  is  so  much  as  to  deserve  the  name 
of  the  'missing  coupling  between  Capital  and  Labor.'  It 
is  an  excellent  poultice  for  a  boil,  but  it  has  no  properties 
about  it  to  purify  the  blood.  While  there  is  anything  to 
arbitrate  the  question  is  not  settled.  It  will  merely  shift 
the  battle-ground  from  strikes  to  an  endless  war  of  words, 
arguments,  and  quarrels.  To  be  efficient  there  must  be 
courts  of  arbitration  established  with  power  to  enforce  their 
verdicts.  In  time  these  courts  will  be  bribed  and  bought 
up  like  our  more  pretentious  ones.  Laborers  will  accuse 
their  own  representatives  of  'selling  out;'  and  as  force  is 
the  court  of  final  appeal  in  all  cases,  the  ultimate  result 
would  be  strikes  against  the  terms  of  the  arbitration.  I  am 
strongly  in  favor  of  arbitration  as  a  bridge  over  the  red  sea 
of  labor  troubles,  and  think  that  by  bringing  employer  and 
employed  together  on  an  equal  footing  it  will  hasten  us 
to  the  promised  land.  As  a  finality,  as  a  solution  of  the 
problem,  it  is  deceptive.  Peace  has  nothing  to  arbitrate. 
What  we  want  is  not  arbitration,  but  unison  of  purpose 
and  perfect  peace  between  the  two  factors  of  production — 
Capital  and  Labor.     Peace,  but  not  the  peace  of  slavery. 

"  3.  To  say  no  would  be  to  insult  the  human  intellect 
that  has  accomplished  so  much.  We  have  annihilated  time 
and  space  by  moans  of  mechanisms  propelled  by  steam  and 
lightning;  we  have  invented  machinery  producing  so  much 
tiiat  the  markets  of  the  world  an;  glutted  with  its  '  over- 
production ' — and  shall  we  sit  down  in  despair,  with  t'.iree- 


128  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

fifths  of  the  race  iii  hunger  and  rags,  because  we  have  so 
much  food,  so  many  products  of  labor,  that  we  know  not 
liow  to  distribute  them  so  that  we  may  eat  and  wear  ?  If 
half  the  intellect  that  has  been  employed  to  concentrate 
ninety-seven  per  cent,  of  the  wealth  of  our  cities  into  the 
hands  of  three  per  cent,  of  their  population,  and  to  reduce 
wages  to  the  European  basis,  had  been  exercised  in  discov- 
ering an  equitable  basis  for  the  distribution  of  the  profits 
of  industrial  enterprises,  it  would  long  ago  have  been  dis- 
covered. If  the  cute,  deep,  scheming  brains  that  have 
enacted  laws  that  so  successfully  operate  to  make  the  rich 
richer  and  the  poor  poorer,  had  been  used  to  pass  laws 
providing  for  the  just  distribution  of  the  products  of  labor, 
they  would  have  been  fully  as  successful.  Common-sense 
suggests  a  just  and  equitable  basis  for  the  division  of 
profits.  The  difficulty  lies  in  discovering  men  who  will 
divide  upon  any  basis. 

"  4.  Industrial  partnership  is  a  hybrid  form  of  co-opera- 
tion, and  is  certainly  a  move  in  the  right  direction.  Last 
year  Lorillard  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  distributed  $16,500 
among  their  employes  as  the  surplus  profits  above  what  they 
felt  disposed  to  i-eserve  for  themselves.  The  distribution 
was  made  in  proportion  to  the  average  earnmgs  of  each 
employe  for  the  year.  Doubtless  this  sum  represented  but 
a  small  per  cent,  of  the  real  profits  of  their  business,  but 
as  it  amounted  to  over  one  hundred  dollars  per  employe,  I 
think  it  would  be  a  difficult  matter  to  work  up  a  strike 
among  them.  Industrial  partnership  gives  labor  a  pecuni- 
ary interest  in  the  profits  of  industry  pro  rata  with  its  own 
wages.  Wherever  tried  it  has  proven  successful.  Cases 
are  reported  where  two  men  moved  their  benches  near 
together,  so  that  both  could  work  by  one  light  to  save  the 
expense  of  one  gas-jet.  It  induces  men  to  economize  ma- 
terial, stops  the  outrageous  waste  so  painfully  apparent  in 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    129 

all  our  factories;  'killiiio;  time,'  'dodging  the  boss,'  ceases 
to  be  the  aim  of  life,  and  the  emplo3'e  becomes  as  nervous 
over  wasted  time  and  material  as  does  the  '  boss.'  A  few 
months  ago  the  I.  D.  &  S.  railroad  managers  began  pay- 
ing premiums  to  section  foremen  who  kept  their  sections  of 
track  in  the  best  condition.  The  road-bed  suddenly  became 
one  of  the  best.  Last  year  the  Wabash  began  offering 
premiums  for  best  sections  of  track.  Several  years  ago 
Messrs.  Hazard  ct  Hazard,  of  Peacedale,  R.  I.,  issued  a  cir- 
cular to  their  employes  stating  that  the  next  year  all  profits 
accruing  above  the  average  profits  of  the  five  preceding 
years  would  be  divided  among  them  pro  rata  to  the  wages 
paid.  The  first  year  the  profits  of  the  firm  did  not  exceed 
the  average  profits  of  the  preceding  five  years,  and  no 
division  was  made.  The  next  year  $5,824.40  was  divided 
among  the  employes,  amounting  to  five  per  cent,  of  the 
gross  wages  paid.  The  next  year  a  similar  per  cent,  was 
paid.  Last  year  only  three  per  cent,  of  the  gross  earn- 
ings was  paid,  but  this  amounted  to  $3,'760.14.  This 
profit-sharing  has  been  practised  successfully  in  England, 
and  especially  in  France,  wliere,  established  at  Guise  with 
M.  Godin,  an  early  disciple  of  Fourier,  at  its  head,  it  is  an 
illustration  of  what  men  can  do  if  they  will.  IJut  some 
definite  basis  must  be  had  for  profit-sharing.  So  far  as 
tried  heretofore  in  this  country,  individual  employers  have 
divided  so  much  as  they  pleased  of  the  profits  of  their  busi- 
ness among  their  workmen.  The  basis  must  not  be  left  to 
the  whim  of  the  capitalist.  Capitalists,  when  left  to  keep 
or  give  what  they  please,  keep  all ;  that,  at  least,  will  bo 
the  result  in  America,  where  the  greed  of  gain  has  grown 
so  great  that  even  American  religion  has  turned  from  the 
worship  of  the  'God  of  our  fathers'  to  that  of  the  'dollar 
of  our  dads.'  A  scientific  basis  for  profit-sharing  may  be 
obtained   by  an   accurate  analysis  of  the  elements  of  pro- 

9 


130  TIIK    LABOR    rROHLEM. 

tliiction.  Tlie  Ohio  bureau  of  labor  statistics  shows  that 
in  the  flouring  industry  the  net  profits  accruing  to  capital 
exceed  by  four  times  tlie  amount  of  wages  paid.  By  the 
Illinois  report  of  the  bureau  of  labor  statistics  for  1884, 
the  profits  in  this  industry  are  a  trifle  less  than  the  wages 
paid.  The  truth  probably  lies  somewhere  between  the 
showings  of  the  Illinois  and  Ohio  bureaus.  By  the  Massa- 
chusetts report  the  average  product  per  employe  is  $1V92, 
in  Illinois  $3168  —  yet  in  Massachusetts  the  average  net 
profit  to  the  employer  upon  each  employe  is  ninety-eight 
dollars  per  year,  while  in  Illinois  it  is  but  seventy-six  dol- 
lars. This  results  from  the  fact  that  raw  material  is  72.24 
per  cent,  of  the  product  in  Illinois,  while  in  Massachusetts 
it  is  61.32  per  cent.  Wages  are  higher  also  in  Illinois,  the 
average  being  §430  for  Illinois  and  $364  for  Massachusetts. 
I  am  speaking  only  of  manufacturing  industries.  This  net 
profit  per  employe  represents  the  sum  left  after  deducting 
interest  on  capital  invested,  and  ten  per  cent,  of  product  for 
running  expenses,  which  estimate  is,  in  my  opinion,  entirely 
too  high.  A  mutual  participation  in  these  profits  by  all 
concerned  would,  when  established  upon  a  definite  and 
thoroughly  understood  basis,  forever  settle  the  labor  ques- 
tion. It  would  also  settle  the  '  over-production  '  question, 
as  the  millions  thus  added  to  the  purchasing  power  of  the 
masses  would  be  used  to  increase  their  comforts,  and  the 
increased  market  facilities  would  make  the  change  to  a 
profit-sharing  industry  a  profitable  one  for  Capital  as  well 
as  Labor. 

"  5.  Yes.  The  same  degree  of  intelligence  applied  to  co- 
operation that  has  been  applied  to  the  individual  system 
would  make  it  a  universal  success.  Heretofore  it  has  been 
attempted  by  black-listed  strikers  who  had  been  trained  un- 
der a  wage  system  to  look  upon  all  men  as  rascals,  and  to 
believe  no  honest  man  can  make  a  living.     The  attempts 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    131 

that  liave  failed  have  been  made  by  associations  of  work- 
ing-men without  business  training,  and  suspicious  of  each 
other  from  the  start.  Co-operation  has  built  some  of  the 
most  extensive  industries  of  England.  Rochdale,  Manches- 
ter, and  many  other  establishments,  not  only  own  their  own 
works  but  their  own  transportation  ships,  and  have  estab- 
lished a  trade  with  nearly  all  parts  of  the  earth.  The  Fa- 
milistere,  at  Guise,  in  France,  is  co-operative,  pure  and  sim- 
ple. It  would  be  an  insult  to  American  intelligence  to  say 
it  cannot  make  co-operation  successful.  It  has  not  proven 
a  success,  only  because  the  business  intelligence  of  the  coun- 
try has  never  tried  it.  It  will  succeed  when  working-men 
cease  to  consider  everybody  thieves  and  blacklegs,  Avatch- 
ing  for  a  chance  to  get  a  good  hand  and  go  into  bankrupt- 
cy ;  and  they  will  cease  to  believe  this  when  the  evidence 
of  its  truth  becomes  less  apparent.  It  will  succeed  wlien 
men  of  business  training  become  interested  in  it  and  make 
it  succeed.  At  Xashua,  New  llampshire,  the  iron  mould- 
ers established  a  foundry  four  years  ago,  with  a  capital  of 
$4000.  They  now  have  a  capital  of  $16,000,  pay  them- 
selves customary  wages,  and  have  a  dividend  of  ten  per  cent. 
a  year  for  distribution.  There  is  only  one  intemperate  man 
among  them,  and  he  is  '  bracing  up.'  At  I'eoria  the  Knights 
of  Labor  have  established  a  co-operative  coal-mining  com- 
pany, to  employ  black-listed  striking  Knights  of  Labor 
miners.  It  is  a  success.  Here  in  Decatur  we  have  a  Car- 
penters' Co-operative  Association,  with  a  capital  of  $5000. 
It  is  engaged  in  house-building,  and  has  a  cabinet-shop  here. 
It  is  in  a  flourishing  condition.*    The  business  of  co-opera- 

*  Dr.  Albert  Sliaw,  of  the  Minneapolis  {Minn.)  Tribune,  in  a  recent 
letter  to  Prof.  Ricliard  T.  Ely  suid,  "  When  I  state  tliat  tlie  flour- 
mills  of  this  city  far  siiipass  those  of  any  other  milling  point  in  the 
world,  and  that  they  have  a  daily  capacity  of  thirty  thousand  bar- 
rcls  of  flour,  you  will  perceive  the  necessity  for  coopers.     Not  far 


132  THE    LABOR    I'ROnLEM. 

tive  associations  must  be  managed  by  men  of  business.  In 
January  some  of  the  striking  nailers  of  Pittsburg  formed 
a  co-operative  association  with  some  of  the  business  men, 
iron-dealers  of  Pittsburg.  If  the  business  men  are  allowed 
to  manage  the  business,  and  are  honest,  the  venture  will  suc- 
ceed. Combinations  of  capitalistic  corporations  is  but  the 
co-operation  of  capital  for  its  own  good.  This  lias  been 
made  a  lamentable  success.  Co-operative  capital  now  is- 
sues its  annua!  price-lists  for  every  commodity  we  make, 
and  orders  Congress  to  enact  a  law  that  shall  settle  the 
price  of  commodities  we  do  not  make.  Every  firm  of 
Brown,  Jones,  Smith  &  Co.  shows  what  co-operation  in 
capital  can  do.  It  only  requires  the  same  intelligence  di- 
rected towards  making  a  co-operation  between  Capital  and 
Labor  a  success,  and  it  will  be  so.  All  our  intelligence  has 
been  used  to  get  the  greatest  amount  of  labor  for  the  least 
money,  to  piling  up  fortunes  for  ourselves — getting  ahead 
of  somebody  in  a  legal  way — hence  our  civilization  is  a 
pyramid  built  upon  crushed  out  human  lives.  On  the  other 
hand.  Labor  has  sought  to  be  even  with  Capital  by  doing  as 


from  lialf  the  flour  is  sliipped  in  barrels  (the  other  half  in  sacks). 
There  are  some  seven  hundred  coopers  at  work  on  flour  barrels. 
About  two  hundred  and  fifty  of  these  are  'journeymen,'  working 
for  '  boss'  coopers  in  three  different  shops.  The  remaining  four 
hundred  and  fifty  (more  or  less)  are  grouped  in  seven  co-operative 
shops,  which  they  own  and  manage  themselves.  The  system  is  indig- 
enous. It  has  been  developed  by  laboring  men  without  any  patron- 
age or  preaching  or  persuasive  literature.  It  began  a  dozen  years  ago 
in  the  feeblest  way,  without  friends  or  capital,  and  in  the  face  of  sus- 
picion and  distrust.  It  has  won  its  way  until  two-thirds  of  the  coop- 
ers have  gone  into  co-operative  movements.  It  has  secured  such  State 
laws  as  it  required,  and  it  has  credit  and  standing.  Its  moral  effects 
are  more  marked  and  gratifying  than  its  financial  and  industrial  suc- 
cess. It  develops  manhood,  responsibility,  self-direction,  and  inde- 
pendence." 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    133 

little  as  possible  in  the  longest  possible  time — hating  its  em- 
ployers with  a  hatred  that  one  must  have  felt  to  realize.  And 
it  is  only  the  certainty  with  wiiich  a  poor  man  is  hanged 
for  killing  a  rich  one  that  deters  individual  assassinations 
hourly.  I  see  by  the  papers  that  Jay  Gould  will  not  open  a 
letter  addressed  to  him  for  fear  of  dynamite,  or  some  such 
stuff.  Ho  makes  his  Italian  clerk,  Morosini,  open  them 
first,  and  Morosini  has  a  fifteen-year-old  boy  hired  to  open 
the  suspicious-looking  ones.  Looking  at  it  from  all  sides, 
I  think  capitalists  will  consult  their  own  interests  by  aban- 
doning the  competitive  wage  system  and  adopting  cither  a 
profit-sharing  system  or  co-operation  pure  and  simple.  The 
majority  of  employers  are  loved  by  their  employes  no  bet- 
ter than  Jay  Gould  is  loved  by  the  people  of  the  United 
States. 

'"Some  day  philosophy,  no  doubt, 
A  bettor  world  will  bring  about ; 
Till  then  the  world  a  little  longer 
Must  blunder  on  through  love  and  hunger.' " 

John  Jarrett,  Esq.,  Secretary  of  tlie  American  Tinned  Plate 
Association,  and  recently  President  of  t/ie  Amalgamated  Asso- 
ciation of  Iron  ami  Steel  Workers. 

"  I  have  watched  with  much  interest  your  course  in  deal- 
ing with  the  labor  problem.  1  believe  it  to  be  in  the  riglit 
direction,  as  it  is  educational,  progressive,  and  practical. 
My  views  arc  generally  pretty  well  known  and  understood, 
and  I  have  but  little  of  a  practical  character  that  is  new  to 
offer  in  reply  to  your  questions.  I  will  thcrcf(jre  but  brief- 
ly reply  to  them. 

"  1.  I  do  not  consider  strikes  and  lock-outs  necessary 
features  of  the  wage  system.  The  causes  of  these  evils 
arc  complicated  and  abstrnsc.  One  of  these  causes  is  per- 
haps the  abuses  of  the  wage  system,  but  I  can  hardly  con- 
ceive how  that  the  svsteni  itself  ran  be  lield  aecoiintablc 


134  THE    LABOR    I'UOBLEM. 

for  strikes  and  lock-outs.  \\'orkmcn  everywhere  profess 
that  what  they  desire  is  the  realization  of  a  *  fair  day's 
wages  for  a  fair  day's  work,'  and  this  in  turn  implies  a 
just  and  equitable  wage  system,  and  perfect  harmony  be- 
tween employers  and  employed.  Is  such  a  ^vagc  system 
possible  under  existing  conditions?  I  do  not  believe  it  is. 
We  must  first  have  a  higher  moral  sense  of  each  other's 
welfare  than  we  now  have.  Seltishncss,  avaricionsness,  in- 
temperance, and  extravagance  must  be  supplanted  by  love, 
virtue,  and  justice.  Education  is  anotiiei'  great  essential. 
Again,  as  educated  and  civilized  man,  and  all  societary 
organisms,  are  artificial  elements,  so-called  natural  laws 
must  give  way  to  -artificial  laws  in  the  government  of  all 
economic  and  industrial  conditions,  Fkee  competition 
must  be  displaced  by  fair  competition,  and  individual  rights 
must  be  considered  in  the  light  of  the  general  good.  The 
word  FREE,  with  advanced  civilization,  can  under  any  cir- 
cumstances be  used  in  its  absolute  sense,  far  the  more  per- 
fect our  civilization  and  association  the  more  dependent 
we  become  •upon  cacli  otlier.  J"^ar  these  reasoos  it  will  al- 
ways be  necessaiy  that  combinations, (organizations)  should 
be  encouraged  among  both  employers  and  empJo3-es,  not 
for  the  purpose  of  antagonizing  each  other,  but  for  co- 
operating and  working  in  complete  hai'mony  with  each 
other.  It  needs  no  argument  to  prove  -the  necessity  of 
organizations  of  this  character,  as  the  highest  order  of 
civilization  demands  them ;  as,  for  instaace,  who  would 
think  of  evangelizing  the  world  and  winning  it  to  Christ 
without  organizing  churches.  Combinatious  among  the 
employers  of  labor  should  protect  the  ti'ade  agaiiast  cutting 
prices  or  selling  products  below  actual  cost,  for  no  person 
has  a  right  to  sell  at  a  loss,  as  such  an  act  would  be  unjust 
and  detrimental  to  every  other  producer,  and  consequently 
to  the  general  good.     These  combinations  should  so  regu- 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    135 

late  prices  as  to  insure  them  the  ability  to  pay  reasonable 
wages.  Workmen  should  also  be  organized  for  protection, 
self-improvement,  and  advancement.  No  person  should  bo 
allowed  to  work  at  such  wages  as  would  not  insure  reason- 
able living — the  standard  of  wages  should  be  in  accordance 
with  the  conditions  surrounding  the  industries,  and  should 
be  equalized  as  near  as  is  consistent  in  all  sections  of  the 
country.  I  know  of  no  better  remedy  in  the  adjustment 
of  all  differences  that  may  arise  between  employers  and 
employes  than  arbitration  and  conciliation. 

"  Profit  -  sharing,  based  upon  industrial  copartnership, 
seems  to  furnish  an  excellent  means  of  uniting  the  inter- 
ests of  employer  and  employe.  This  system,  where  adopt- 
ed and  faithfully  carried  out,  has  generally  succeeded  in 
accomplishing  its  purposes.  It  is  certainly  growing  in  fa- 
vor. I  would  not  advocate  profit-sharing  unless  it  is  based 
on  industrial  partnership.  I  would  not  have  the  workmen 
purchase  shares  in  the  stock  of  the  company  by  which  they 
are  employed.  All  improvements  in  machinery,  special 
tools,  etc.,  and  the  benefits  accruing  therefrom,  would  tben 
be  shared  in  by  the  workmen  as  stockholders  and  capital- 
ists. This  accomplished,  productive  co-operation  in  its 
highest  form  would  become  practicable,  and  the  labor 
problem  would  bo  solved.  For  several  years  I  have  based 
all  my  arguments  in  discussing  the  labor  problem  upon  the 
teachings  of  Christ.  I  know  of  nothing  more  beautiful 
than  the  words  '  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,'  and  '  Do 
unto  others  as  you  would  have  others  do  unto  you.'  These 
simple  truths  include  in  themselves  every  essential  principle 
necessary  to  the  solution  of  the  labor  problem.  Employers 
and  employes  must  not  only  learn  to  know  these  princi- 
ples but  practice  them  also.  The  strong  and  wealthy  must 
set  the  example  of  love  and  justice  before  others.  We 
should  Kf.'ck  to  improve  oursolvcs  and  serve  mankind,  and 


136  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

thus  make  the  best  use  of  life  and  its  choicest  blessings. 
AVorkmen  must  stand  up  aj^ainst  the  evil  of  intemperance; 
it  is  a  monster  destroyer,  uot  ouly  robbing  them  of  man- 
hood and  honor,  but  also  of  the  very  mean«  of  earning  an 
honest  living.  The  manufacture  of  intoxicating  liquor 
represents  but  very  little  productive  labor,  and  its  consump- 
tion does  nothing  but  clog  the  u heels  of  commerce  and 
progress.  Remove  the  curse  of  drink,  and  the  workman, 
and  indeed  all  our  people,  are  raised  to  the  higher  plane, 
in  the  which  all  people  become  thinkers  and  workers.  The 
sequel  is  clear." 

C.  S.  Btrkit,  Esq.,  Des  Moines,  la. 

"  How  best  to  solve  the  problem  of  Capital  and  Labor 
equitable  to  the  interests  of  both  is  no  longer  a  local  ques- 
tion, but  of  a  national  importance  and  world-wide  discus- 
sion. ^ 

"  The  age  when  Capital  was  crowned  king,  and  Labor  uni- 
versally proclaimed  his  inherent  vassal,  is  rapidly  passing 
away.  Free  thought,  free  press,  and  the  free-school  sys- 
tem— splendid  monuments  to  the  wisdom  of  constitutional 
provisions  guaranteed  by  a  liberal  republic  to  a  progressive 
and  intelligent  constituency — have  got  in  their  work.  The 
gray  dawn,  whose  misty  veil  long  marked  the  coming  of 
this  golden  era,  has  melted  into  a  glorious  day,  and  the 
representative  of  Labor  stands  up  to-day  the  acknowledged 
brother  of  Capital,  and  claims  a  hearing. 

"True,  these  great  achievements  have  not  been  wrought 
without  a  struggle,  and  the  path  of  progress  from  heart- 
breaking poverty  and  want  up  to  emancipation  and  recog- 
nition has  been  marked  by  weary  strikes  and  lock-outs ;  it 
has  been  strewn  with  the  ashes  of  destruction,  wet  with  the 
blood  of  victims,  and  fraught  with  unrecorded  deeds  of 
heroism  and  sacrifice.     When  the  iron  hand  of  oppression 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  137 

seemed  to  settle  upon  the  laborer,  and  ten  hours'  faithful 
toil  failed  to  produce  at  the  company's  store  a  sufficiency 
of  bread  for  the  wife  and  wards  ;  when  the  fire  on  the  hearth 
had  perished  as  his  hopes,  and  his  protest  at  the  office  had 
resulted  in  filling  his  place  at  the  forge  by  another  unit 
from  the  army  of  the  unemployed,  whom  the  pangs  of 
hunger  and  needs  of  a  destitute  family  had  made  more  des- 
perate than  himself,  what  wonder  he  saw  little  difference  in 
theory,  in  the  attainments  of  results,  by  the  application  of 
the  torch,  or  the  destruction  of  others'  property  in  lioston 
bay,  at  the  birth  of  the  republic — a  story  so  long  justified 
and  cherished  as  a  sacred  legend  of  our  country  because  it 
was  successful. 

"But  Capital  schooled  in  the  vicissitudes  of  business  is 
never  slow  to  recognize  the  inevitable,  and  the  force  that 
once  held  ignorance  in  surveillance  for  private  gain,  recog- 
nizing the  failure  to  coerce  with  the  musket  and  Gatling 
the  men  who  not  only  forged  them,  but  scored  on  many  a 
well-won  field  in  other  days  a  historic  record  in  their  ma- 
nipulation, now  joins  voices  in  calling  for  a  solution  of  this 
vexed  question. 

"  One  of  the  grandest  milc-stoncs  that  marks  this  exodus 
from  bondage  up  to  recognition  by  the  press  and  people, 
was  the  organization  of  Labor  under  that  beautiful  meta- 
phor that '  the  injury  of  one  is  the  concern  of  all,'  and  the 
coramenccmcnt  of  the  study  of  the  condition  of  Labor  and 
its  relation  to  Capital  intelligently.  The  instigator  of  strikes 
was  given  the  advantage  of  a  '  hired  hall,'  new  thoughts 
were  suggested  to  thinkers,  a  free  exchange  of  opinion  soon 
schooled  the  brighter  class  of  working-men  away  from  the 
torch  and  bludgeon  theory,  and  a  clear  understanding  ena- 
bled them  to  present  their  case  in  an  unanswerable  and  logi- 
cal way  ;  there  became  thinkers  at  the  trades — the  moulders 
of  molten  metal  by  day  became  muulders  of  men's  minds  by 


138  THE    LABOR    PKOBLEM. 

night.  A  new  era  Imd  set  in,  and  the  weaver,  as  lie  iiie- 
clianically  watclied  by  liis  -warp  and  woof,  worked  out  a 
new  fabric  in  the  web  of  the  loom  of  life;  and  the  little 
band  of  'communists,'  so  called,  has  grown  and  overshad- 
owed the  land,  and  its  representatives  but  lately  met  in  ar- 
bitration the  foremost  representatives  of  the  wealth  of  our 
nation. 

"  If  such  grand  achievements  arc  the  result  of  council 
and  calm  reason  to  the  one,  Avhy  not  successful  to  both  ? 
There  is  no  good  reason  why  the  corporation  and  the  union 
should  be  antagonized.  One  cannot  exist  without  the  oth- 
er, both  have  rights  that  the  experience  of  the  past  has 
taught  each  other  to  respect ;  there  are  no  differences  which 
reason  cannot  remove,  so  the  sooner  alleged  grievances  are 
talked  over,  and  the  question  logically  stated  before  a  fair 
and  competent  board  of  arbitrators,  the  better.  True,  it 
may  be  the  decisions  of  such  a  board  cannot  be  constitu- 
tionally enforced,  but  their  published  opinions,  based  upon 
evidence  in  the  case,  would  go  far  towards  moulding  public 
opinion  in  the  matter.  The  typical  American  tradesman 
is  a  shrewd  business  fellow  ;  so  long  as  the  mediator  leaves 
him  margin  he  will  not 'shut  down,' but  will  court  cus- 
tom and  patronage  by  cheerful  acquisition. 

"  The  typical  American  customer  wants  to  buy  his  goods 
cheap,  but  the  tenacity  with  which  he  has  so  long  indorsed 
a  tariff  policy  demonstrates  his  friendship  to  the  interests 
of  Labor,  and  that  the  willing  worker  shall  not  want. 

"  The  American  laborer  is  not  a  selfish  man,  he  only 
wants  that  part  of  the  world  the  just  fruits  of  his  labor, 
but  he  does  want  it  '  fenced.'  lie  cannot  see  Betsey  and 
babies  trudge  along  the  road  of  life  that  the  wife  of  Dives 
may  drive  in  dignity,  not  while  he  is  one  of  the  two  pen- 
dants on  the  scales  of  justice.     Let  us  try  arbitration." 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  TUE  LABOR  QUESTION.    lo9 

"  A  Working-man  "  residing  in  Connecticut. 

"  Where  do  I  stand  to  look  at  this  alleged  *  irrepressible 
conflict'  between  Labor  and  Capital?  I  was  boru  about 
Christmas-time,  1830.  My  father  was  a  poor  mechanic. 
At  nine  years  of  age  I  went  from  home  and  began  to  earn 
my  own  living.  Long  stories  have  been  told  of  men  who 
started  in  life  with  all  their  worldly  goods  tied  up  in  a  ban- 
danna handkerchief,  and  became  rich.  I  have  remained 
poor,  and  for  my  part  in  the  bandanna  racket  I  can  say 
that  in  all  these  forty-six  years,  since  a  ninc-yc<ar-oid  '  kid  ' 
I  began  to  work  for  a  living,  all  the  worldly  goods  which 
have  come  into  my  possession  which  I  have  not  bought 
and  paid  for  through  the  labor  of  my  hands  or  head  could 
be  easily  done  up  in  a  child's  size  bandanna.  Did  my 
'  hands  become  callous  from  toil  ?'  Yes,  before  I  reached 
my  teens,  and  I  have  kept  them  so  ever  since.  Then  I  am 
A  working-man  ?  What  do  I  say  in  reply  to  the  questions? 
Of  course  I  ought  to  take  sides  with  the  working-men.    I  do. 

"  1.  Are  strikes  and  lock-outs  a  necessary  feature  of  the 
wage  system  ?  Yes,  and  will  be  just  as  long  as  human  nat- 
ure is  so  constituted  as  to  prompt  men  to  bite  off  their  own 
noses  to  spite  somebody  else. 

"  2.  No  ;  there  is  no  coupling  missing.  Mutual  interest 
is  the  coupling.  Reiteration  of  the  false  charge  that  such 
interest  is  incompatible  with  tJic  wage  system  causes  the 
trouble. 

"  3.  No ;  it  must  remain  a  matter  of  contract  between 
employer  and  employed,  in  which  employers  must  be  the 
judges  of  what  they  can  afford  t<;  pay,  and  laborers  may 
decide  whether  to  accept  the  wages  offered. 

"  4,  No ;  because  Labor  is  not  ready  to  take  its  share  of 
the  risk  and  responsibility,  and  bear  its  share  of  the  hisses; 
and  judging  from  the  way  it  (fjabor)  acts,  it  would  Ik;  li;ii-d 


140  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

to  convince  it  tliat  it  wns  getting  its  share,  no  matter  wliat 
it  did  get. 

"5.  Yes,  certainly.  ^Vlly  not?  Who  can  say  a  word 
against  it?  Won't  half  a  million  of  dollars,  put  into  any 
business  in  which  that  is  a  suflicient  capital,  be  just  as  good 
if  it  is  owned  by  one  liundVed  or  five  hundred  working-men 
as  though  it  belonged  to  some  single  capitalist  or  a  dozen 
of  them  ?  Certainly.  There  is  no  law  against  it.  Labor 
may  break  loose  from  the  bondage  and  ills  from  which  it 
suffers  at  any  time.  Just  put  in  its  capital.  ('Capital!' 
That's  the  very  thing  which  oppresses  Labor!)  It's  neces- 
sary, though,  and  of  course  it  will  be  different  when  every 
man  has  a  share,  all  working-men.  It's  got  to  be  managed  ? 
Yes,  and  some  of  your  contributors  think  that  among  work- 
ing-men there  has  been  insufficient  business  training,  and 
that  efficient  business  managers  can't  be  selected  from  the 
ranks.  They  never  made  a  greater  mistake.  But  will  the 
best  men  be  selected  to  manage?  If  they  are,  will  they  be 
permitted  to  manage  without  dictation  and  annoyance  from 
men  who,  only  fitted  by  nature  and  education  for  the  most 
menial  service,  when  elevated  to  the  dignity  of  capitalist  (?) 
think  their  'right  to  have  their  say  is  just  as  good  as  any- 
body's?' In  co-operation  the  greatest  difficulty  lies  in  the 
fact  that  there  are  so  many  to  be  pleased  or  displeased  with 
business  management  who  know  nothing  about  business, 
and  many  of  them  can't  learn, 

"  Still  there  is  great  hope  in  this  direction.  In  every 
successful  business  enterprise  established  and  managed  by 
working-men,  pure  and  simple — not  managed  as  some  con- 
tributors try  to  make  it  appear  is  necessary,  by  ability  hired 
from  the  capitalists'  side — there  will  be  great  good  accom- 
plished in  the  cultivation  of  a  higher  standard  of  self-re- 
spect, and  of  such  virtues  as  economy,  self-denial,  forbear- 
ance, and  an  insight  will  be  gained  of  the  trials  and  risks, 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  Ill 

tlic  fears  and  forebodings,  contingencies  and  losses  wliich 
arc  part  and  jiarcel  of  carrying  on  business  for  one's  self, 
and  which  the  average  wage-earner  knows  little  of.  Most 
of  all  there  is  wanted  enlightenment  on  the  labor  question. 
The  establishment  of  co-operative  enterprises  by  Labor  will 
give  more  than  'side-lights,'  It  will  be  light  on  the  sub- 
ject from  front  and  rear,  and  throngli  skylights  as  well  as 
from  the  sides.  There  will  be  failures,  but  there  will  be 
successes  too,  and  through  both  there  will  be  increase  of 
knowledge.  Success  will  bring  contentment  and  happiness 
to  some.  So  will  failure.  Many  a  business  man,  after  years 
of  struggling  against  reverses  (to  finally  fail)  has  settled 
down  to  such  day  wages  as  he  could  get,  and  says  '  he  nev- 
er took  so  much  comfort,  never  was  so  happy  before  in  his 
life.' 

"Certainly,  brother  working-men.  Start  in  for  your- 
selves. Have  a  business  of  your  own  ;  you  have  a  right  to 
do  so.  You  will  liave  a  right  to  manage  it.  Too  many 
of  you  are  now  trying  to  manage  the  business  of  others. 
You  have  no  right  to  do  that.  Anybody  who  is  willing  to 
make  the  investment,  take  the  risk,  bear  the  burdens  of 
care  and  anxiety  and  losses  attendant  upon  doing  business, 
has  the  right;  but  the  right  to  look  on  idly,  so  far  as  in- 
vestment and  risk,  or  sharing  in  losses  are  concerned,  and 
still  demand  a  share  of  the  profits,  is  questionable. 

"  '  Industrial  partnership,'  as  interpreted,  carries  with  it 
too  many  unreasonable  propositions.  If  full  wages  be  paid, 
how  can  the  employer  after  that  divide  with  his  employes? 
If  less  than  full  wages  be  paid,  thereby  creating  a  fund  for 
division,  how  are  the  employes  better  off  in  conse(]uence? 
If  full  wages  be  paid  and  a  bonus  added,  does  it  practical- 
ly mean  anything  else  than  increase  in  wages?  and  docs 
that  not  mean  increase  in  cost  of  production  ?  If  it  be 
true  that  Labor  is  so  dishonest,  so  short-sighted,  so  blind  in 


142  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

its  attacks  upon  Capital,  that  to  get  an  lionost  day's  work 
and  prevent  wholesale  destruction  of  tools  and  material 
and  property  of  all  descriptions  it  is  necessary  to  have  a 
clianoe  of  system,  does  it  not  seem  that  more  light  is  need- 
ed to  show  that  there  is  no  natural  breach,  instead  of  teach- 
ings which  cause  a  breach  and  tend  to  widen  it? 

"  In  days  gone  by  we  have  read  much  stuff  about  the 
'  noble  red  man '  which  illy  fitted  the  character  of  the 
blood-thirsty,  cowardly,  sneaking  assassin  who,  sparing 
neither  women  nor  children,  faced  no  foe  if  he  could  pos- 
sibly stab  him  in  the  back  or  decoy  him  to  some  well-laid 
ambush.  In  these  days  we  are  hearing  much  about  the 
'  dignity  of  labor,'  about  '  God  -  given  rights,'  etc.  Why 
not  drop  this  humbug  about '  dignity  of  labor  '  and  try  to 
cultivate  more  of  the  dignity  of  true  manhood?  And  of 
the  '  God-given  rights '  about  which  so  much  loud  prating 
is  done,  why  would  it  not  be  as  well  for  each  to  give  the 
other  as  much  as  he  claims  for  himself?  and  just  now 
should  not  a  halt  be  called  to  see  what  that  means?  No- 
ble working-men.  Yes.  Yes.  By  the  million.  Some  of 
them  poor,  living  from  hand  to  mouth,  some  because  that  is 
the  best  they  can  do,  some  because  they  would  do  nothing 
else  no  matter  what  wages  they  had.  Others  who  are  rich, 
independent,  and  still  are  toiling  daily  with  their  hands  for 
more,  and  still  others  who,  coming  to  the  front  with  strike 
and  boycott,  bludgeon,  dynamite,  and  torch,  are  continually 
ringing  the  changes  on  a  demand  upon  Capital  to  '  divide,' 
and  wish  to  be  considered  '  the  most  noble  of  them  all.'  " 

J.  H.  BuRTT,  Esq.,  of  Wheeling,  West  Va.,  an  Officer  in  one  of 
the  Leading  Labor  Organizations. 

"1.  Strikes  and  lock-outs  will  continue  so  long  as  the 
wage  system  exists,  and  are  really  a  necessity.  They  will 
remain  so  until  some  arrangement  can  be  fixed  that  will 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION".    143 

permanently  settle  the  value  of  the  article  tliat  has  used 
the  money  of  the  capitalist  and  the  labor  of  the  workman 
in  its  production.  The  gold  dollar  has  a  fixed  value  in  law. 
All  men  arc  required  to  honor  it  at  its  weight.  No  power 
can  change  it  (except  the  power  that  made  it),  hence  all 
values  revolve  around  it,  regulated  by  a  so-called  law  of 
supply  and  demand.  Let  the  changes  be  what  they  may  in 
all  else  it  can  never  affect  the  unit  of  value.  Capital  is  in- 
vested for  profit,  and  labor  is  invested  for  wages,  and  so 
long  as  the  product  is  controlled  by  this  same  so-called  law, 
just  so  long  will  there  be  a  conflict  between  dividends  and 
wages. 

"  2.  Arbitration  is  not  the  missing  coupling,  it  is  a  tem- 
porary expediency ;  does  not  and  cannot  settle  a  differ- 
ence between  employer  and  employe.  The  coming  coup- 
ling must  contain  within  itself  the  authority  to  determine 
forever  a  settlement.  Arbitration  simply  arranges  in  ac- 
cordance to  the  state  of  the  market,  containing  no  power 
to  bind  cither;  for  upon  the  first  fluctuation,  over  which  it 
or  they  have  no  control,  the  side  affected  most  is  certain  to 
make  a  new  demand. 

*'  The  basis  referred  to  in  No.  3  is  not  a  matter  of  dis- 
covery nor  a  question  of  industrial  partnerships,  as  in  No. 
4,  if  only  those  engaged  at  a  particular  plant  are  to  be  bene- 
fited ;  or  of  productive  co-o[)eration,  if  the  number  of  dol- 
lars invested  is  to  receive  the  profit  in  the  shape  of  divi- 
dends. The  relief  will  come  through  the  discipline  of  trade- 
unionism,  and  will  be  developed  as  a  method  of  self-defence. 
Trades-unions  now  know  that  they  cannot  maintain  a  fixed 
market  price  of  their  product.  Employers  cause  these 
changes  through  competition  for  trade,  and  try  to  save  a 
fixed  profit  to  themselves  by  enforcing  reductions  in  wages 
to  make  up  the  loss.  Unions  are  now  striving  and  search- 
ing for  a  system  of  resistance  that  will  secure  permanently 


144  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

a  fixed  rate  of  wages,  and  force  tlie  loss  by  fluctuations  upon 
profits.  These  redactions  arc  now  met  by  unions  with  a 
perfected  plan  of  assessments,  by  which  large  amounts  of 
money  are  secured  from  the  working  membership  and  paid 
to  those  who  are  engaged  in  a  strike.  The  sums  annually 
collected  for  this  purpose  often  exceed  more  than  enough 
to  purchase  or  build  or  put  in  operation  one  or  more  plants, 
and  at  the  close  of  the  contest  this  money  is  regarded  as  a 
necessary  loss.  Our  educational  advantages  arc  making  all 
workmen  readers  and  thinkers,  thereby  rendering  them  less 
susceptible  to  the  controlling  influences  of  Capital,  and  at 
the  same  time  giving  them  the  intelligence  to  understand 
that  this  waste  must  be  prevented.  It  is  also  teaching 
them  to  take  the  next  step  and  submit  to  an  assessment  to 
be  used  as  a  weapon  of  self-defence.  This  assessment  will 
be  used  in  the  establishment  of  plants  under  the  manage- 
ment of  the  national  unions,  through  executive  officers 
chosen  in  the  same  way  that  their  officers  are  chosen. 
These  plants  will  be  used  as  safety  -  valves.  The  union 
standard  of  wages  will  always  be  paid,  profits  shall  be  sac- 
rificed to  quality,  and  the  selling  price  of  the  product  shall 
be  that  of  the  competitor  who  offers  his  product  at  the 
lowest  figure,  rising  and  falling  at  his  pleasure,  with  quality 
always  in  its  favor.  The  profits,  if  any,  will  be  covered 
into  the  treasury  of  the  national  unions,  to  be  used  togeth- 
er with  such  assessments  as  are  required  to  put  at  work  at 
once  the  workmen  of  any  individual  concern  who  may  feel 
justified  in  trying  to  enforce  a  reduction,  to  build  a  new 
plant  and  deprive  them  of  their  workmen  forever,  thus  re- 
lieving the  men  from  a  period  of  idleness,  and  get  a  return 
for  the  money  spent  in  their  maintenance,  and  establish 
another  valve  through  which  the  fluctuations  shall  escape 
without  affecting  the  rate  of  wages.* 

*  Grand  Master  Workman  Powderly,  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  in 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LADOH  QUESTION.    145 

"Thus  a  counterbalance  will  be  furnished,  and  as  soon 
as  the  system  shall  be  perfected  and  executed,  just  so  soon 
will  strikes  and  lock-outs  cease  in  all  industrial  enterprises, 
or  else  the  trades -unions  will  absorb  the  whole  business, 
obtaining  relief  here.  These  same  unions  will  then  move 
as  a  whole  for  the  protection  of  the  employes  of  corpora- 
tions that  cannot  be  reached  in  this  way.  These  receive 
certain  privileges  in  law  for  public  service  rendered,  and 
we  find  that  they  pay  the  lowest  possible  figure  to  those 
they  employ,  and  demand  the  highest  rate  for  a  service  per- 
formed. They  derive  these  and  all  other  privileges  they 
enjoy  from  the  State,  and  if  it  should  appear  that  they 
take  advantage  of  its  citizens,  the  State  can  and  will  amend 
these  charters  by  fixing  fees  which  they  shall  pay  for  each 
service  performed.  As  it  is,  it  is  only  necessary  for  them 
to  make  a  few  more  extortionate  demands  upon  their  em- 
ployes, to  be  resisted  in  turn  by  riots  and  dynamite,  and 
an  outraged  people  will  come  to  the  relief  of  these  unfort- 
unates under  the  direction  of  disciplined  trades-unions." 

his  last  annual  address  says :  "  I  have  seen  co-operative  ventures  fail 
because  of  a  lack  of  business  qualifications,  and  nothing  can  remove 
the  idea  that  the  persons  having  the  matter  in  charge  were  dishonest. 
Working-men  are  not  business  men  by  any  means;  and  so  long  as 
we  continue  the  question  of  getting  a  few  cents  more  in  the  day  for 
labor  done,  and  neglect  to  look  after  the  matter  of  investing  the 
money  we  do  get  to  the  best  advantage,  and  in  a  way  that  will  bring 
back  the  best  results  and  largest  returns,  we  will  continue  to  be  igno- 
rant of  the  laws  by  which  business  is  governed." 

10 


CHAPTER  VI. 

A  SYMPOSIUM  ON  SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR 

QVESTIO'S— Continued. 

VIEWS    OF    DIVINES. 

Eev.  R.  Heber  Newton,  D.D.,  JV^eio  York  City. 

"  YoL'R  questions  arc  very  big  ones.  Rightly  to  answer 
them  would  involve  an  essay.  I  suppose  all  yon  desire  is 
a  concise  summary  of  opinion.  This  I  beg  to  offer  you  as 
follows: 

"1.  Abstractly,  I  should  say,  No.  Ultimately,  I  cer- 
tainly believe  they  will  be  found  needless.  Practically,  and 
for  the  present,  I  do  not  see  how  they  are  to  be  avoided. 
So  long  as  Capital  and  Labor  seem  to  stand  in  their  present 
antagonistic  attitude,  so  long  there  will  be  a  disposition  on 
either  side  to  resort  to  the  lock-out  and  the  strike.  It  is 
largely  a  question  of  feeling.  Given  a  kindly  and  trustful 
feeling  on  both  sides,  and  of  course  there  would  be  no  need 
of  a  resort  to  either  the  lock-out  or  the  strike ;  but  given 
the  feeling  that  exists  too  largely  to-day  on  either  side,  of 
selfishness,  of  irritation,  of  suspicion,  of  prejudice,  and  both 
lock-outs  and  strikes  are  likely  to  result. 

"  2.  I  think  it  is,  as  far  as  lock-outs  and  strikes  are  con- 
cerned. Wherever  the  feeling  on  both  sides  is  sufficiently 
amicable  and  cordial  to  induce  a  calm  consideration  of  the 
whole  state  of  the  case,  and  to  trust  to  the  judgment  of 
chosen  representatives,  there  the  lock-out  and  strike  will  be 
needless.  Arbitration  is  proving  in  the  economic  strife 
what  it  is  in  the  political  strife.    The  fact  that  nations  are 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THK  LABOR  QUESTION.    147 

now  ready,  under  the  force  of  public  opinion  and  by  the 
very  burden  which  war  imposes,  to  pause  a  moment  before 
coinmittini^  themselves  to  actual  conflict  and  talk  the  mat- 
ter over,  is  itself  a  preventive  of  war  in  many  instances.  It 
gives  time  for  passion  to  cool  and  judgment  and  conscience 
to  assert  themselves.  Arbitration  is  proving  to  be  the  miss- 
ing coupling  between  Capital  and  Labor  in  England  and  in 
France — very  notably  in  the  latter  case  in  the  semi-legal 
courts,  known  as  the  conseils  des  prudliommes* 

"  3.  It  is  most  devoutly  to  be  hoped  we  may.  That  the 
present  division  is  not  equitable,  needs  scarcely  any  argu- 
ment to  prove.  If  society  is  to  advance,  and  the  mass  of 
men  to  be  lifted  higher,  a  more  just  division  of  profits  must 
be  found.  Nay,  even  if  we  are  to  avoid  bloody  revolution 
and  anarchy,  sue!)  a  reform  must  accomplish  itself  in  some 
way. 

*  These  councils  are  judicial  tribunals,  constituted  under  authori- 
ty of  the  Minister  of  Commerce,  tliiough  the  Chambers  of  Commerce, 
which  are  establislied  at  important  trade  centres  of  that  country. 
They  are  composed  of  an  equal  number  of  employer  and  working- 
men  members,  each  class  electing  its  own  rejjresentatives,  with  a 
president  and  vice-president  named  by  the  government.  Tlic  author- 
ity of  tliese  councils  extends  to  every  conccivaljlo  question  that  can 
arise  in  tiie  workshop,  not  only  between  the  workman  and  his  em- 
ployer, but  between  the  workman  and  his  apprentice  or  his  foreman. 
There  is  but  one  question  tliey  cannot  settle — future  rates  of  wages; 
but  even  this  can  be  done  by  mutual  agreement.  Arbitration  is  com- 
pulsory upon  the  application  of  either,  and  the  decisions  of  the  court 
can  be  enforced  the  same  as  those  of  any  other  court  of  law.  Tiie 
workings  of  tiiese  courts  have  been  beneficial  to  Freneli  industry,  es- 
pecially in  conciliation,  by  which  more  than  ninety  per  cent,  of  all 
cases  before  the  tribunals  arc  settled.  In  1850,  of  28,000  cases, 
26,800  were  settled  by  conciliation.  There  were  in  1880,  about  one 
hundred  and  thirty-five  councils  in  France.  Out  of  every  hundred 
cases  brought  before  the  Court  of  Conciliation,  fifty-nine  relate  to 
wages,  thirteen  to  dismissals,  ten  to  misbehavior,  five  to  disputes  about 
apprenticeship,  and  thirteen  to  various  other  points. 


148  THE    LADOK    PROBLEM. 

"4.  I  think  it  docs.  Tiie  attempt  to  define  and  formu- 
late abstractly  a  just  division  of  prolits  between  Capital  and 
Labor  is  very  difticult,  if  not  indeed  impossible.  If  we  wait 
until  we  can  establish  theoretical  and  equitable  distribution, 
we  shall  wait  forever.  Meanwhile,  here,  as  everywhere  else, 
the  way  forward  lies  in  taking  one  step  at  a  time — in  put- 
ting in  the  thin  edge  of  the  wedge  first — in  establishing  a 
principle  and  leaving  it  to  work  out  laws  and  customs.  In- 
dustrial partnership  is  a  perfectly  feasible  arrangement.  It 
merely  asks  of  Capital  a  willingness  to  relinquish  a  small 
proportion  of  its  present  profits.  It  even  promises  to  re- 
pay to  Capital  somewhat  of  its  loss  of  profit,  in  the  quick- 
ening of  the  enterprise,  skill,  and  thrift,  and  loyalty  of  the 
labor  which  it  identifies  with  Capital's  own  interest.  It  cer- 
tainly promises  to  repay  to  Capital  somewhat  of  the  loss 
of  profit  by  preventing  the  waste  of  the  lock-out  and  strike. 
As  Mr.  Rowland  Hazard,  of  Peaccdale,  R.  L,  wrote  me,  after 
an  experiment  in  this  direction, '  It  pays  in  acting  as  a  light- 
ning-rod.' No  specific  proportion  of  profits  need  be  in- 
sisted upon.  This  must  be  left  to  the  judgment  and  con- 
science of  individual  employers.  But  if  the  custom  once 
be  established,  the  principle  is  laid  down  that  Labor  has  a 
right  to  share  proportionately  with  Capital  in  the  profits  of 
the  industry.  This  principle  once  established  will  push  it- 
self forward,  will  grow  its  own  developments,  and  the  pres- 
ent wage  system  will  climb  into  a  higher  system  of  itself. 

"  5.  I  scarcely  know  how  to  answer.  It  is  !iot  a  ques- 
tion to  be  determined  abstractly  by  theorists,  but  purely  by 
experiments  of  practical  men.  My  study  of  the  various  ex- 
periments in  j)roductive  co-operation  in  this  country,  as 
embodied  in  the  Princeton  Review,  dad  not  encourage  me 
very  greatly  as  to  the  immediate  practicability  of  this  much- 
to-be-desircd  advance  on  the  part  of  Labor.  A  success  in 
this  line  demands  a  higher  education  on  the  part  of  the 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    149 

working-inun  ;  more  experience  in  working  together  than 
for  the  present  is  likely  to  be  practicable ;  production  only 
on  a  small  scale,  or,  if  on  a  larger  scale,  by  hiring  the  gen- 
eralship of  brains  in  superintending  the  work. 

Eev.  Howard  Crosuy,  D.D.,  of  H'ew  Tork  City. 

"  1.  Yes. 

*'2.  I  prefer  co-operation. 

"  3.  Co-operation. 

"4.  Yea. 

"  5.  Yes.  In  small  matters  the  workman  has  it  all 
Lis  own  way.  lie  charges  the  house-keeper  who  cm- 
ploys  him  what  he  pleases.  It  is  in  large  manufactories, 
railroads,  etc.,  where  the  workman  is  tyrannized  over. 
There  participation  in  the  profits  shonld  be  enforced  by 
law,  and  no  workman  should  be  dismissed  without  cause 
(indorsed  by  a  court),  or,  if  dismissed  without  cause,  he 
should  have  six  months'  wages  paid  him.  Summary  dis- 
mission of  hundreds  when  the  percentage  of  profits  falls  a 
little  is  an  outrage." 

Rev.  Charles  R.  13aker,  D.D.  ,  Church  of  the  Messiah,  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y. 

"  I  suppose  that  strikes  and  lock-outs  arc  necessary  feat- 
ures of  the  wage  system  so  long  as  the  organization  of 
Labor  is  inferior  to  that  of  Capital.  When  the  labor  unions 
can  bring  all  their  strength  to  bear  on  Capital,  so  as  fairly  to 
match  it  in  discipline  and  acuteness  and  skill  in  manage- 
ment, arbitration  will  prevail.  Many  capitalists  with  whom 
I  am  acquainted  arc  as  anxious  as  the  laboring  men  for  a 
just  settlement  of  their  diflicultics.  All  that  they  want  is 
a  system  which  shall  bear  on  all  alike,  so  that  no  one  com- 
petitor be  allowed  an  advantage.  I  have  some  doubts  of 
productive  co-ojjoration,  though  dislributive  has  been  such 


160  THE    LABOR    TROBLEM. 

a  success.  However,  it  ought  to  have  a  fair  cliancc  to 
make  the  experiment.  If  the  laboring  men,  as  a  whole, 
gain  a  higher  estimate  of  tlic  worth  of  life  and  of  tlic 
value  of  intellectual  and  other  culture,  as  they  seem  to  be 
doing  at  present,  and  make  a  general  and  persistent  demand 
upon  the  community  for  a  larger  share  of  the  earnings  of 
the  whole  as  the  means  of  getting  it,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
as  to  the  result.  For  the  present  the  aim  ought  to  be 
to  strengthen  the  unions  and  extend  thera  to  all  branches 
of  labor;  organize  them  into  a  central  bureau,  and  bring 
their  power  to  bear  upon  the  legislatures  to  limit  the  enor- 
uious  power  of  capital  in  the  great  corporations.  An  asso- 
ciation like  the  Standard  Oil  Company  is  a  disgrace  to 
modern  Christian  civilization  in  the  minds  of  many  simple 
people." 

Rev.  Sajitel  J.  Nicolls,  D.D.,  of  the  Second  Presbyterian 

Churcli,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

"  The  questions  you  ask  are  most  radical  in  their  char- 
acter, and  look  to  the  solution  of  one  of  tlie  most  impor- 
tant subjects  of  the  hour.  The  relations  between  Capital 
and  Labor  have  a  sad  history  in  the  past.  On  the  one  side 
we  see  monstrous  tyranny  and  enormous  wealth ;  on  the 
other  poverty  and  slavery.  So  long  as  time  lasts  we  must 
Lave  capital  and  labor,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Christian 
philanthropist  to  seek  the  proper  adjustment  between  them. 
Some  progress  has  been  made,  and  I  think  we  are  begin- 
ning to  see  what  ought  to  be  done,  even  if  our  vision  is  as 
yet  imperfect. 

"As  to  the  first  question,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  strikes 
and  lock-outs  are  not  necessary  features  of  the  wage-sys- 
tem ;  they  are  features  incidental  to  the  present  condition 
of  affairs.  There  are  times,  perhaps,  when  we  may  justify 
them,  just  as  we  justify  revolutions  in  civil  government, 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION,    151 

but  in  the  main  tliey  arc  blind  ntid  ill-advised  attempts  to 
remedy  wrongs.  Their  history  plainly  shows  that  they  arc 
not  profitable  to  those  who  engage  in  them.  They  prodncc 
more  ill-will  between  Capital  and  Labor  and  loss  of  time 
than  they  secure  good  to  either  party.  After  careful  in- 
quiry, I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  in  nine  cases  out 
of  ten  they  liavc  been  fermented  by  reckless  and  dissatis- 
fied spirits. 

"^a  to  the  second  question,  I  believe  that  arbitration  is, 
as  yet,  by  far  the  best  method  of  removing  friction  between 
Labor  and  Capital.  It  brings  good  sense  and  integrity  in- 
stead of  force  to  the  settling  of  difliculties.  \Vc  have  found 
out  that  arbitration  is  better  than  war  among  the  nations ; 
why  should  it  not  be  equally  successful  in  settling  contests 
between  Capital  and  Labor? 

"As  to  the  third  question,  we  certainly  ought  to  be  ex- 
pecting some  more  satisfactory  and  equitable  basis  for  the 
division  of  the  profits  arising  from  industry  and  enterprise. 
The  more  we  come  to  understand  the  relations  between 
man  and  man,  and  the  law  of  truth  and  love  that  should 
prevail  everywhere,  the  more  will  we  be  ready  to  condemn 
all  grinding  monopolies  and  oppressions.  For  myself,  I 
believe  that  the  faithful  applications  of  the  teachings  of 
the  Gospel  to  all  the  relations  of  life  will  lead  to  a  fair 
distribution  of  the  products  of  labor.  Unrestrained  greed 
will  ever  seek  to  oppress  labor.  Law  at  best  can  aiford 
only  a  feeble  protection  against  the  encroachments  of  Cap- 
ital. The  desired  protection  must  be  secured  by  moral 
force. 

"As  to  questions  fourth  and  fifth,  I  believe  very  much 
ca?i  be  done  through  co-operation,  and  I  believe  it  is  prac- 
ticable in  the  United  States,  The  history  of  co-op(.'rative 
partnership  shows  this  [)eyond  quefition.  (Certainly  some 
l)asi3  can  be  devised  by  large-hearted  business  men  which 


162  THE    LABOH    PROBLEM. 

will  be  equitable  to  both  Capital  and  Labor,  and  at  the 
same  time  prove  an  incentive  to  Labor  by  giving  to  it  that 
honor  which  is  its  due.  If  working-men  could  be  made  to 
feel  that  they  are  personally  interested  in  the  prosperity  of 
the  enterprise  in  which  they  are  working,  they  would  natu- 
rally be  more  careful,  laborious,  and  prudent.  Both  Cap- 
ital and  Labor  would  gain  by  such  co  -  operation.  The 
problem,  however,  is  not  one  of  easy  solution.  It  will  re- 
quire much  time  and  experience  to  work  it  out." 

Eev.  J.  II.  Rylance,  D.D.,  Rector  of  St.  Mark's  Church, 
New  York  City. 

"Cannot  the  reason  and  conscience  and  skill  of  a  com- 
munity professing  to  be  Christian,  and  boasting  of  its 
culture  and  strength,  do  something  effectual  for  the  more 
equal  distribution  of  the  enormous  results  of  our  product- 
ive industry?  The  United  States  census  for  1870  gives 
$400  as  the  annual  average  of  workers'  earnings,  and  in 
1880  a  little  over  $300.  Till  something  of  that  sort  is 
achieved  do  not  wonder  if  mnrmurings  fill  the  air,  that  dis- 
content is  rife,  that  there  is  constant  struggle  between  Cap- 
ital and  Labor,  or  tliat  classes  are  jealous  of  each  other  and 
imbittered,  spite  of  all  the  preaching  going  on  about  a 
universal  brotherhood.  But  what  can  be  done?  It  is 
easy  to  complain,  occasions  are  plentiful  in  all  commu- 
nities. 

"But  wliat  are  the  remedies  for  our  social  troubles? 
"Why,  certainly  not  violent  insurrection  against  the  old 
order  of  things,  but  a  gradual  and  steady  improvement  of 
it,  so  approaching,  if  only  by  slight  steps,  to  a  Christian 
socialism,  when  passions  and  powers,  now  in  antagonism, 
shall  work  harmoniously  together  and  be  fruitful  in  larger 
benefits  for  all.  Why  should  we  not  follow  an  example 
which  France  long  since  set  the  world  in  such  directions? 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    153 

In  1806  the  govcniment  of  that  country  instituted  the 
conseils  des  prud'Iu)mmes  for  the  settlement  of  difliculties 
arising  between  employers  and  their  employes,  to  prevent 
resorts  being  had  to  strikes  or  lock-outs,  which  waste  so 
much  wealth  and  inflict  so  much  suffering,  effectually  hin- 
dering often  a  just  understanding  being  reached  by  in- 
flaming the  passions  of  both  parties  to  the  strife.  Only 
such  cases  arc  handled  as  arc  voluntarily  submitted  to  this 
Board  of  Arbitration,  the  decisions  being  urged  simply  by 
moral  suasion.  Such  success  has  followed  their  efforts, 
liowever,  that  of  28,000  disputes  lieard  within  a  certain 
interval,  20,800  were  adjusted  amicably. 

"Now  this  is  surely  a  much  wiser  and  more  Christian 
method  of  settling  such  controversies  than  by  violence  and 
bloodshed,  whicli  we  read  of  so  often  in  our  own  newspa- 
pers. A  much  more  effectual  measure  for  reconciling  the 
interests  of  Capital  and  Labor  has  been  practically  applied 
both  in  France  and  in  England,  as  also  in  this  country,  by 
which  the  products  of  labor  have  been  increased  in  quanti- 
ty and  improved  in  quality.  I  refer  to  what  is  called  'in- 
dustrial partnerships,'  working-men  being  given  a  fixed 
share  of  the  profits  of  successful  business  operations,  ac- 
cording to  the  value  of  the  services  they  liave  rendered  in 
securing  the  success.  Working-men  thus  become  inter- 
ested in  their  work,  need  much  less  watching,  and  arc  more 
careful  of  the  property  intrusted  to  them,  knowing  that  by 
diligence  and  fidelity  to  the  employer's  interests  they  arc 
thereby  serving  their  own,  while  confidence  and  good  tem- 
per and  kindly  feeling  are  maintained  between  classes  of 
men  too  often  at  enmity  with  each  other.  Certain  colliery 
proprietors  in  England  adojjted  the  principle  to  their  ma- 
terial profit.  The  employers  retained  ten  per  cent,  of  the 
gains  of  their  business,  but  these  increased  to  sixteen  per 
cent,  under   the   now   system,  the   surplus   being   divided 


154  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

among  tlic  worlcmen,  who  improved  also  morally,  learning 
self-respect,  showing  more  love  for  their  families,  so  hus- 
banding their  earnings,  instead  of  spending  them  in  drink 
and  debanchery. 

"  Similar  evidence  of  the  practical  value  of  the  principle 
of  industrial  partnerships  was  supplied  by  the  Crossleys, 
the  well-known  English  carpet  manufacturers,  who  convert- 
ed their  immense  concern  into  a  joint-stock  company.  They 
held  out  special  inducements  to  their  workmen  to  become 
share-holders,  who,  according  to  the  last  report  I  have  seen, 
actually  held  $500,000  worth  of  capital  stock.  Now  these 
are  hopeful  examples,  I  take  it,  of  a  certain  sort  of  Chris- 
tian socialism  which  might  easily  be  multiplied. 

"  But  co-operation  proper  is  surely  the  direct  way  out 
of  the  snarls  and  antagonisms  in  which  capitalists  and  la- 
borers are  so  frequently  involved.  If  ever  the  condition  of 
the  laboring  classes  is  to  be  really  and  radically  improved, 
they  will  have  to  work  out  their  own  salvation,  and,  spite 
of  all  hinderances  in  the  way,  they  can  do  it  now  by  intel- 
ligently and  persistently  diverting  their  minds  and  their 
means  to  that  end.  Instead  of  suspicion  and  denunciation 
of  capitalists  they  should  combine  their  resources  and  en- 
ergies in  business  enterprises.  Not  much,  perhaps,  can  be 
done  by  them  on  a  very  large  scale  in  that  way ;  but  if 
only  in  a  modest  way,  in  branches  of  business  open  to 
them,  which  can  be  carried  on  with  limited  means,  let  them 
try  to  secure  and  maintain  their  individual  independence, 
sharing  among  themselves  the  results  of  their  skill  and  ex- 
ertions. If  any  one  say  that  such  counsel  is  vain  and  illu- 
sory, let  him  listen  to  a  marvellous  story  : 

"In  1844,  in  a  manufacturing  town  in  the  north  of 
England,  twenty-eight  laborers  formed  a  conspiracy  to  im- 
prove their  condition,  which  was  just  then  well-nigh  des- 
perate.    They  agreed  to  combine  their  means  wherewith 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION. 


155 


to  start  their  scheme  of  distributive  co-operation.  Their 
subscription  of  only  five  cents  a  week  slowly  accumulated 
to  $140,  on  the  strength  of  which  they  rented  a  store  and 
began  business.  At  first  there  was  struggle  and  tempta- 
tion to  despair,  but  after  a  while  profits  began  to  show 
themselves,  converts  to  their  scheme  increased,  and  joined 
the  original  twenty-eight — the  members  numbering  nine 
hundred  at  the  end  of  ten  years;  while  the  $140  had  be- 
come $35,860,  business  being  done  in  the  last  year  of  the 
ten  to  the  amount  of  $166,820,  the  profits  of  that  single 
year  amounting  to  $8815.  The  present  status  and  dimen- 
sions of  the  enterprise  started  by  these  twenty-eight  poor 
men  are  indicated  in  the  late  reports.  I  have  had  access 
to  no  later  than  that  of  the  Register  -  general  for  1878,* 
from  which  I  learn  that  there  were  then  in  existence  in 
England,  Scotland,  and  Wales  1289  co-operative  socie- 
ties. The  number  of  members  was  554,773  ;  the  sales 
$104,865,795  ;  and  the  net  profits  $9,002,340.  The  ma- 
terial results  of  the  movements  are  simply  amazing.  But 
who  can  calculate  the  moral  results?  Two  and  a  half  per 
cent,  liavc  steadily  been  set  aside  for  educational  pur- 
poses. Habits  of  sobriety  and  industry  and  economy  have 
been  begotten  in  many  men,  who,  without  such  induce- 
ments, might  have  lived  on  in  sluggish  indifference.  Thou- 
sands who  never  knew  what  it  was  to  be  out  of  debt  liave 
built  for  themselves  houses,  and  liavo  otherwise  provided 

*  Tlie  growth  of  the  co-operative  movement  in  Great  Britain  since 
18C2  is  shown  in  the  following  table: 


Year. 

No.  of 
SociclieB. 

No.  of 
Members. 

Share  and 
Loan  Capital. 

Annual  Sales. 

Proflts. 

180:2 

4.=-)0 

<.«0 

120O 

'.)0,0(W 
:}40,0(X) 
040,000 

£4.-50,000 
3,;540,000 
8,000,000 

£2,:!.-50,000      .tlCC.OdO  1 

1872 

1882 

i;5,o()0,ooo 

25,500,000 

<):f5,.^)(M) 

2, 100,000 

15G  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

agjaiiist  a  '  rainy  day.'  Pride  and  a  ijcncral  aspiration 
have  taicen  the  place  of  the  diihiess  and  despair.  Sobrie- 
ty and  cleanliness  and  self-respect  have  been  fostered  in 
the  multitude,  wliile  honesty  and  fair  dealing  have  been 
practically  illustrated  on  a  scale  seldom  known  in  the  world 
of  traffic." 

Binlwp  Henry  W.  "Wakren,  of  the  M.  E.  Church. 

"  I  regret  that  I  have  not  time  to  tell  how  profoundly  I 
am  interested  in  your  and  all  other  efforts  to  bring  about  a 
clear  understanding  and  perfect  justice  between  the  employ- 
er and  the  employed.  I  have  known  quite  a  number  of  jnen 
who  carried  tlie  '  Do  unto  others  as  ye  would  that  they 
should  do  unto  you '  principle  into  their  daily  business, 
and  I  believe  the  number  of  such  employers  is  increasing 
quite  rapidly.  For  myself  I  have  felt  it  quite  clearly  ray 
duty  to  speak  often — very  often — on  these  high  themes  of 
practical  Christianity.  Christ  came  to  heal  all  the  woes  of 
this  sin-cursed  world.  The  law  of  his  being  was  to  bear 
the  burdens  of  others  (Gal.  vi.  2),  and  the  constant  exhorta- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  is  that  we  be  like  him.  Paul  says: 
'  Let  this  mind  be  in  yon  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus. 
Though  he  was  rich,  yet  for  our  sakes  lie  became  poor,  that 
ye  through  his  poverty  might  be  rich  (II.  Cor.  viii.  9).  It 
is  the  great  glory  of  Labor,  that  the  son  of  that  God  who 
constantly  works  became  a  carpenter.  Pages  upon  pages 
of  the  Bible  forbid  oppression  of  the  poor,  and  teach  that 
God  will  avenge  their  wrongs.  There  was  an  old  law  that 
when  a  poor  man  was  obliged  to  pawn  his  garment  it 
should  be  restoreil  to  him  at  night,  that  he  might  sleep 
in  comfort  and  bless  the  considerate  pawnbroker  (Dent, 
xxiv.  13).  And  prompt  payments  were  required  in  these 
words:  'The  wages  of  him  that  is  hired  shall  not  abide 
with  thee  all  night  until  the  moming'  (Lev.  xix.  13). 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LADOR  QUESTION.    157 

"  If  we  were  as  careful  to  incorporate  into  onr  practice 
and  our  laws  tlie  care  of  the  poor  and  the  execution  of  jus- 
tice exhibited  in  the  Mosaic  system  as  Jefferson  was  to  in- 
corporate its  principles  into  our  National  constitution,  many 
of  our  labor  troubles  would  bo  at  an  end. 

"  Emphatic  as  God  was  against  oppressors,  he  was  no 
less  so  a(:;;ainst  tramps,  saying,  'Six  days  shnlt  thou  labor 
and  do  all  tiiy  work;'  and  'If  any  work  not,  neither  should 
he  eat'  (II.  Thes.  iii.  10). 

"He  taught  arbitration:  'If  thy  brother  shall  trespass 
against  thee,  go  and  tell  him  his  fault  between  thee  and 
him  alone.  .  .  if  he  will  not  hear  thee,  then  take  with  thee 
one  or  two  more.  .  .  if  he  shall  neglect  to  hear  them,  tell 
it  unto  the  church  :  but  if  he  neglect  to  hear  the  church, 
let  him  be  unto  thee  as  a  heathen  man  and  a  publican.' 

"There  is  no  better  Magna  Charta  of  human  rights  than 
the  Bible,  no  truer  conservator  of  liuman  liberty  than  tlio 
church  that  is  true  to  the  Bible  and  its  Maker.  Every 
preacher  of  the  Word  should  be  sure  that  he  docs  not  fail 
to  expound  that  part  of  it  that  denounces  oppression  and 
stands  up  for  the  oppressed.  Because  they  have  not  failed, 
I  believe,  as  I  intimated  in  opening,  there  is  an  increasing 
number  of  establishments  where  the  Judge  of  all  righteous- 
ness might  go  through  every  part,  and  say  at  the  close  of 
his  inspection, '  Well  done.'  " 


CHAPTER   VII. 

A  SYMPOSIUM  ON  SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUES- 
TION—CoH^mttetZ. 

VIEWS  OP  LABOR  COMMISSIONERS. 

Uon.  E.  R.  IIuTCinNS,  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statistics,  State  of 
Iowa. 

"  Each  question  is  a  great  study  in  itself.  Tliey  arc  the 
ones  that  are  rapidly  becoming  national  ones,  and  I  believe 
upon  their  wise  solution  largely  rests  the  prosperity  and 
peace  of  the  country.  There  is  no  longer  any  use  of  cry- 
ing communism,  socialism,  etc.  While  such  isms  curse  the 
nation  and  greatly  retard  the  progress  of  the  honest  work- 
ing -  men,  the  fact  is  nevertheless  indisputable  that  the 
working-men  have  donned  their  thinking  caps,  and  under- 
neath them  there  is  going  on  '  a  heap  o'  thinking.'  That 
this  is  true  is  one  of  the  best  signs  of  the  times.  If  this 
country  needs  anything  among  its  working-men  it  is 
thought.  When  this  is  cultivated  and  exercised,  judg- 
ment (and  not  a  few  agitators  who  *  bring  us  nothing  but 
the  ocean  to  make  our  broth  with  ')  will  logically  settle 
their  matters  of  dispute  and  controversy.  Among  these 
questions  (and  among  the  chief  ones)  are  those  I  find  in 
your  letter  before  me.  I  must  almost  answer  them  with 
simply  the  brevity  of  a  Yes  or  a  No. 

"  1.  I  answer,  Yes.  The  question  is  one  of  the  present 
tense,  hence  I  am  compelled  to  answer  thus.  Bring  about 
some  of  the  results  implied  in  your  subsequent  questions 
and  I  should  unhesitatingly  answer,  No.     But  the  truth  is, 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    159 

that  no  matter  how  costly  the  method  and  liow  bitter  the 
experience  under  the  present  state  of  things,  the  working- 
men  as  individuals  have  but  little,  if  any,  power  to  estab- 
lish their  claim  for  cither  a  better  condition  or  better  pay 
than  by  combined  acts  of  compulsion.  This  is  a  humiliat- 
ing statement,  yet  it  is  true,  hence  your  question  gets  an 
aflSrmative  reply  from  me. 

"  2.  I  believe  it  is.  Believing  it  to  be,  I  have  urged  in 
my  report  the  enactment  of  a  law  embodying  its  princi- 
ples. Wherever  it  is  tried  honestly  it  is  successful.  This 
is  true  in  this  and  in  the  old  countries.  But  it  must  be 
honest.  It  must  be  entered  into  with  sincerity  on  the  part 
of  both  sides,  and  its  results  must  be  as  binding  as  any  law 
upon  a  statute-book.  Such  a  policy  must  eventually  suc- 
ceed, for  at  its  very  foundation  is  the  recognition  of  mu- 
tual rights.  This  is  getting  very  near  the  highest  Divine 
command, 'Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.'  What  is  needed 
is  for  reason  to  assert  itself.  When  it  shall  hold  sway  (and 
it  will  not  take  long  in  honest  arbitration  to  enthrone  it) 
then  employer  and  employe  will  learn  that  their  interests 
are  not  antagonistic,  but  thoroughly  reciprocal. 

"  3.  I  think  so.  Arbitration  is  one  of  the  strongest  and 
broadest  features  of  co-operation,  hence  through  it  I  look 
for  light  towards  a  '  more  satisfactory  and  equitable  basis 
for  the  division  of  the  profits.' 

"  4.  I  judge  not  altogether,  but  certainly  to  a  great  de- 
gree. It  is  a  long  stride,  and  perhaps  we  are  not  yet  ready 
for  it.  Again,  arbitration  will  go  a  long  way  to  show  wheth- 
er we  are  and  whether  it  is  best. 

"  5.  I  have  no  doubt  of  it.  The  splendid  results  arrived 
at  from  the  plan  in  Philadelphia  and  in  New  Brunswick 
certainly  show  it.  These  institutions  are  upon  a  large  scale, 
and  countless  smaller  ones  over  the  country  lead  us  to  l)e- 
licvc  that  they  may  be  made  as  successful   in  America  as 


1(30  TllK    LAUOll    PROBLEM. 

that  established  by  M.  Lechxirc,  or  that  of  the  Roclidale 
pioneers.  '  It  means  self-help,  self-dependence,  and  such 
share  of  the  common  competence  as  Labor  shall  earn  or 
thought  can  win,  and  this  it  intends  to  have.'  If  this  is 
true,  it  is  a  powerful  factor  in  political  economy.  It  is  the 
embodiment  of  justice,  and  when  all  things  else  perish,  jus- 
tice shall  be  immortal." 

iJo?i.  Joel  B.  McCamant,  Chief  of  Bureau  of  Industrial  Statis- 
tics, State  of  PennsyUania. 

**  1.  Strikes  and  lock-outs  will  prevail  as  long  as  the  pe- 
culiar relations  which  exist  now,  and  always  have  existed, 
between  Labor  and  Capital  continue. 

"  2.  Arbitration,  in  my  opinion,  is  tbe  only  reasonable 
'  coupling  between  Labor  and  Capital.' 

"  3,  How  such  a  satisfactory  result  is  to  be  arrived  at 
has  puzzled  the  writers  on  economic  subjects  in  all  ages, 
and  is  no  nearer  a  solution  now  than  when  the  agitation 
on  this  question  first  began. 

"  4.  A  question  I  am  not  prepared  to  answer,  nor  is 
it  the  province  of  this  bureau  to  arrive  at  any  solution 
of  it. 

"  .5.  A  question  that  can  only  be  arrived  at  by  practical 
application.  Theories  have  been  advanced  by  the  score, 
and  the  end  is  not  yet ;  but  theorists,  as  a  general  thing, 
never  advance  anything  of  a  practical  nature,  nor  what  is 
beneficial  to  all  classes  of  mankind.  I  may  be  permitted 
to  remark,  however,  that  the  organization  of  labor  unions, 
properly  conducted,  meets  with  my  approval.  Wherever 
these  organizations  exist,  and  have  been  conducted  in  con- 
formity with  law  and  common-sense,  benefit  has  resulted  to 
the  wage-workers  as  well  as  all  other  classes.  They  have 
brought  about  a  higher  standard  of  intelligence  among  the 
working-men  of  the  country,  and  a  greater  degree  of  capac- 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  Ifil 

ity  for  the  appreciation  of  good  and  just  government,  wliicli 
must  eventually  be  productive  of  the  best  results  to  all  con- 
cerned." 

Hon.  Oscar  Kochtitzky,  Commissioner  of  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics  and  Inspection  of  Missouri. 

"In  answering  I  will  combine  your  first  and  second 
questions :  Strikes  and  lock-outs  arc  certainly  not  a  neces- 
sary feature  of  the  wage  system.  They  are,  in  nearly  ev- 
ery case,  the  result  of  an  aggravation  of  ill-feeling,  brought 
on  by  the  existence  of  a  real  or  imaginary  difference  exist- 
ing between  employer  and  employe,  which  difference,  in 
most  instances,  could  and  would  have  been  settled  satisfac- 
torily to  both  sides,  had  arbitration  been  resorted  to  as  soon 
as  it  was  known  that  a  serious  difference  between  employer 
and  employe  existed,  and  before  the  breach  between  them 
began  to  widen  and  form  itself  into  an  aggravated  and  re- 
sentful condition.  A  Board  of  Arbitration  composed  of 
persons  capable  to  judge  clearly  between  right  and  wrong, 
possessing  in  every  respect  the  confidence  of  the  commu- 
nity, and  who  are  not  directly  interested  in  the  dispute  to 
be  settled,  would  in  nearly  every  case  present  a  plan  of 
settlement  acceptable  to  both  parties.  Any  proposition 
made  by  a  board  so  composed  would  be  supported  by  the 
moral  force  of  public  opinion,  and  the  refusal  by  cither 
party  to  the  dispute  to  accept  the  plan  of  settlement  pro- 
posed could  only  be  fatal  to  the  interests  of  the  party  so 
refusing.  The  answer  to  the  next  three  (juestions  can  also 
be  combined  :  Cu-opcration,  if  carefully  managed  and  prop- 
erly conducted,  will,  in  my  opinion,  gradually  remove  the 
strained  relations  now  existing  between  Capital  and  Labor, 
and  tend  to  harmonize  those  interests.  Co-operation  will 
increase  the  earnings  of  ('apital  by  distributing  to  Labor 
part  of  the  i)rofits  arising  from  the  combined  efforts  of 

1  I 


1G3  THE    LADOH    PHODLEM. 

Labor  and  Capital.  In  co-operation  tbc  employe  will,  know- 
ing that  as  profits  increase  his  own  interests  increase,  take 
better  care  of  tools,  work  more  willingly,  be  more  careful 
in  handling  the  raw  material  used,  and  in  all  ways  help  to 
increase  earnings.  To  make  co-operation  successful,  great 
care  must  be  taken  in  the  selection  of  tbc  manager  in 
charge ;  no  reason  should  be  given  to  the  wage-worker  for 
suspicion ;  intercourse  between  the  manager  and  worker 
should  be  free,  open,  and  harmonious,  and  by  kind  treat- 
ment the  condition  of  the  wage- worker  more  elevated. 
Arbitration  and  co-operation  will  certainly  aid  greatly  in 
harmonizing  Capital  and  Labor." 

Hon.  Frakk  a.  Flowt;r,  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statistics  for 
the  State  of  Wisconsin. 

'*  1.  As  long  as  there  shall  be  no  radical  changes  in  civil- 
ization— education  and  general  regard  for  the  welfare  of 
society  and  each  other — Yes,  But  I  think,  although  strikes 
are  growing  more  rather  than  less  numerous  in  a  coun- 
try as  old  as  England,  that  as  time  elapses.  Capital,  and 
especially  government,  is  gradually  conceding  more  to  La- 
bor in  this  country',  and  that  ultimately  the  two,  insepa- 
rable in  success  or  disaster,  will  consult  and  work  togeth- 
er with  reasonable  harmony  and  more  even  and  general 
prosperity. 

"  2.  It  will  settle  many  disputes,  no  doubt,  but,  I  think, 
prevent  none  or  few.  What  we  want  is  prevention  of 
strikes,  not  suppression.  That  can  never  come  from  the 
intervention  of  third  or  outside  parties,  but  must  grow  out 
of  a  large  increase  of  mutual  regard  and  kindly  feeling  be- 
tween employer  and  employe.  The  former  must  learn  to 
look  upon  the  latter  as  a  human  being  in  every  respect  like 
himself,  with  heart,  hopes,  ambition,  desires,  sorrows,  and 
sympathies;  and  the  latter  must  cease  hating,  envying,  and 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LAllUR    yUESTION'.  1G3 

railing  at  the  former  because  be  is  rich.  Honest  poverty 
is  no  disgrace,  nor  is  honest  wealth  a  crime. 

"The  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  of  your  queries  arc  sutH- 
cicntly  covered  by  the  last,  viz. :  '  Is  productive  co-opera- 
tion practicable  in  the  United  States?' 

"  It  is,  I  believe,  if  rightly  managed ;  but  not  co-opera- 
tion among  artisans  alone.  It  must  be  some  form  of  co- 
operation between  artisans  and  Capital.  Ambition,  jeal- 
ousy, dissatisfaction,  or  the  desire  to  '  boss '  will  generally 
break  up  co-operation  among  those  who  have  no  capital 
but  their  skill  and  labor.  And  there  are  practical  draw- 
backs to  co-operation  between  Labor  and  Capital  as  it  is 
generally  understood,  the  principal  of  which  are  the  reluc- 
tance or  inability  of  laborers  to  share  with  Capital  in  heavy 
business  losses,  or  to  work  with  little  or  no  wages  or  profits 
during  periods  of  commercial  depression.  Other  draw- 
backs are  the  general  mistrust  of  each  other  among  work- 
ing-men, and  their  lack  of  education  and  such  knowledge  of 
business  men  and  methods  as  are  absolutely  indispensable 
to  success  as  managers. 

"  A  system  of  participation  in  profits  upon  a  fixed  basis 
is  the  only  one  that  can  meet  with  any  reasonable  success 
in  this  country,  and  that  will  not  be  always  satisfactory. 

"  Wages  may  be  fixed  for  workmen,  and  interest  on 
capital  for  employers,  the  excess  of  profit  after  paying 
these  and  the  running  expenses  to  be  divided  among  em- 
ployers and  employes  as  mutually  agreed.  But  even  if 
such  a  system  were  to  become  general  the  millennium  of 
the  working-man  would  not  be  at  hand.  Some  artisans 
will  work  faithfully,  others  shirk.  Some  will  be  econom- 
ical, others  shiftless  and  destructive.  Some  will  be  ambi- 
tious and  pushing,  others  mere  parasites,  as  now,  under  all 
systems. 

"  Law  will  not  bring  high  wages  never  earned  ;  no  so- 


1G4  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

ciety,  strike,  organization,  agitation,  or  corporation  will  ever 
endow  us  all  with  thrift,  contentment,  and  success. 

"Brothers  start  out  together  with  equal  opportunities 
and  resources;  one  goes  up,  another  goes  down,  and  a 
third  dodges  along  from  pillar  to  post,  living  from  hand 
to  mouth  like  a  wild  animal.  Would  any  law  or  custom 
change  this? 

"  1  have  seen  two  artisans  laboring  side  by  side  at  the 
same  work  for  the  same  wages.  One  was  bright  and  cheer- 
ful, the  possessor  of  a  comfortable  home,  a  neat,  clean,  and 
happy  family,  and  a  general  air  of  contentment ;  while  the 
other  was  in  debt,  had  no  home  of  his  own,  and  was  gen- 
erally at  war  with  the  world,  talking  of  strikes,  the  crimes 
of  monopoly,  the  oppressions  of  Capital,  and  the  urgent 
necessity  of  passing  a  law  that  would  tear  up  things  gen- 
erally, and  do  something  to  punish  the  rich  and  help  the 
poor. 

"  No  new  system  can  change  the  natural  bent  of  human 
disposition,  but  I  do  think  that  a  participation  in  profits 
by  workmen  would  do  much  towards  bringing  about  gen- 
eral contentment  and  more  equitable  prosperit}',  and  do 
still  more  towards  preventing  strikes  and  lock-outs.  If  so, 
let  us  have  that  system,  and  the  sooner  the  better." 

Matt.  J.  Simpelaar,  Esq.,  Deputy   Commissioner   Wisconsin 
Bureau  of  Statistics. 

"  1.  Strikes  and  lock-outs  are  the  necessary  results  and 
present  features  of  the  wage  system,  and  will  remain  so 
until  a  substitute  shall  have  been  established  recognizing  the 
true  relation  between  Labor  and  Capital,  as  nearly,  for  in- 
stance, as  the  relations  between  manufacturer  and  merchant 
are  now  established. 

"  2.  Much  as  I  would  like  to  see  arbitration  resorted  to 
in  the  present  status  of  the  labor  problem,  I  do  not  con- 


1 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  1G5 

sidcr  it  the  'missing  coupling'  between  Labor  and  Capital, 
but  consider  it  impracticable  as  a  permanent  means  of  set- 
tlement of  disputes,  unless  the  decisions  of  arbitration  could 
be  legalized  and  made  as  final  as  tbe  verdict  of  juries. 

"  3.  I  believe  tbat  a  satisfactory  and  equitable  basis  for 
the  division  of  profits  arising  from  industrial  enterprises 
was  discovered  long  ago,  but  have  little  hope  that  it  will 
replace  the  wage  system  within  the  next  hundred  years. 

"  4.  '  Industrial  partnerships,'  in  a  specific  sense,  would 
afford  a  remedy.  My  plans  would  be  to  have  a  fixed  in- 
come placed  upon  the  entire  capital  invested,  and  then  let 
Labor  and  Capital  receive  share  and  share  alike  of  the 
joint  product. 

"  5.  Only  in  accordance  with  the  above  plan  do  I  believe 
industrial  co-operation  practicable." 

lion.  James  Brsiiop,  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor 
and  Industries  for  the  State  of  New  Jersey. 

"  On  the  part  of  Labor  it  is  an  encouraging  sign  that  the 
leaders  in  the  labor  movement  are  directing  their  attention 
to  the  question  of  education,  and  in  some  localities  are  ex- 
erting their  influence  to  make  the  public -school  system 
more  practicable,  so  that  a  boy  or  a  girl  graduating  from 
these  schools  shall  be  capable  of  self-support.  In  quite  a 
number  of  schools  in  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey  technical 
instruction  has  already  been  engrafted  upon  the  system. 
In  some  of  our  larger  towns  there  are  being  erected  work- 
ing-men's halls,  where  lectures  can  be  given,  reading-rooms 
opened,  and  libraries  established.  Here,  too,  discussions 
upon  the  economic  questions  take  place,  and  working-men 
are  advancing  to  a  higher  social  plane  and  are  prc[)aiing 
themselves  to  exert  a  larger  influence  upon  the  body  politic. 
These  movements,  in  my  judgment,  make  the  future  mc)re 
hopeful,  and  will  render  it  easier  to  bring  about  the  desired 


IGG  THE    LADOU    PROBLEM. 

l)annony  between  Labor  and  Capital ;  foi*  it  is  certain  that 
as  the  laborer  advances  in  intelligence  he  becomes  more 
useful  to  his  employer,  and  a  mutuality  of  interest  will  be 
established  between  them  which  will,  to  a  great  extent, 
render  strikes  and  lock-outs  unnecessary — for  arbitration 
will  more  easily  settle  whatever  difference  may  occur.  Un- 
questionably the  time  is  near  at  hand  when  some  system 
of  profit-sharing  will  be  adopted  between  the  employer 
and  the  laborer  as  is  now  done  in  many  instances  in  this 
country,  to  a  large  extent  in  England,  and  to  a  still  greater 
extent  in  France.  This  or  some  other  form  of  industrial 
partnership  must  be  inaugurated. 

"But  through  co-operation,  both  productive  and  dis- 
tributive, will  come  the  true  solution  of  the  problem  for 
the  working-man,  if  he  is  ever  to  share  the  accumulations 
now  gained  by  the  comparatively  few  who  handle  the  ex- 
change of  commodities  and  reap  the  benefits  of  manufact- 
ure. Just  imagine  the  army  of  working-men,  each  one  re- 
quiring food,  shelter,  and  clothing,  by  co-operative  effort 
handling  through  their  own  agents  the  supplies  for  their 
families  and  the  dwellings  they  inhabit,  dividing  quarterly 
the  net  profits  among  themselves,  and  then  ask,  How  long 
will  it  take  these  men,  with  proper  economy,  to  become 
eacb  one  a  capitalist  V 


CHAPTER  VIIT. 

A    SYMPOSIUM    ON    SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR 

QUESTION— Continued. 

VIEWS     OF     JOURNALISTS     AND     OTHERS. 

Hon.  Loxim  Blodget,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

"  Your  inquiries  involve  very  broad  questions  relating  to 
the  ccononiic  policy  of  the  country,  and  also  some  more 
recent  questions  relating  to  the  conduct  of  business  when 
our  people  have  no  competition  from  abroad  to  contend 
with.  Having  given  many  years  to  the  work  of  securing 
the  industrial  independence  of  the  country,  I  was  much 
disturbed  and  disappointed  to  see  the  advantages  of  the 
independence  then  almost  secured  so  nearly  thrown  away 
as  they  were  in  1884  and  1885  by  needless  depreciation 
and  inordinate  competition.  And  although  the  danger 
from  these  abuses  has  for  the  present  passed  away,  you 
will  do  a  public  service  if  your  inquiries  help  to  settle  some 
of  the  questions  of  right  and  duty  arising  in  this  industrial 
employment. 

"  1.  Strikes  and  lock-outs  arc  extreme  assertions  of  tlio 
right  of  defence  which  must  be  conceded  when  justice  fails 
otherwise.  The  strikes  of  the  last  few  months  have  done 
great  service  to  the  very  employers  against  whom  they  ap- 
peared to  be  directed,  by  compelling  them  to  organize  their 
business  on  some  better  principles  than  mere  undercutting 
in  prices.  This  undercutting  was  the  chief  cause  of  the 
depression  of  prices  so  much  pressed  for  two  months  at 
the  close  of  1884,  and  still  continuing  for  an  equal  period 


168  THE    LABOR    PROHLEM. 

in  1885.  It  affected  the  iron  industry  first  and  chiefly,  but 
it  was  inure  or  less  prevalent  in  all  industries.  It  was  not 
possible  for  cither  proprietors  or  wage-earners  to  prosper 
under  that  policy.  The  primary  misdirection  was  in  the 
attempt  to  reduce  w-ages  in  order  to  be  able  to  undercut  in 
prices. 

"2.  Arbitration  is  an  admirable  solution  of  ordinary 
difficulties,  but  it  fails  in  such  extraordinary  periods  as  our 
late  experience,  and  is  of  little  value  in  England  now,  be- 
cause if  the  proprietors'  market  absolutely  fail  he  cannot 
pay  labor  at  all.  All  the  workman  can  ask  is  his  rightful 
share  of  the  business  that  really  exists,  and  he  must  take 
care  that  he  saves  a  part  of  his  earnings  when  business  is 
good  and  saving  is  possible.  This  is  the  primary  fault 
with  the  workman  at  all  times,  and  its  correction  should  be 
systematically  urged,  and  should  be  favored  by  proprietors 
as  well  as  by  law.  But  the  principle  of  arbitration  should 
be  established  also  as  a  provisionary  law  available  at  the 
option  of  either  party,  its  operation  to  be  compulsory  only 
when  selected  by  both  as  a  mode  of  settlement. 

"  3.  There  is,  however,  a  higher  authority  that  should  on 
some  occasions  be  resorted  to,  and  compulsory  process  of 
review  and  adjustment  should  be  had  in  some  cases  under 
authority  of  the  civil  law,  which  should  provide  for  the  per- 
formance of  a  contract,  express  or  implied,  unless  good  and 
sufficient  reason  is  shown  for  its  abrogation.  Persons  en- 
gaging in  a  service  the  nature  of  which  is  continuous, 
should  be  held  to  a  reasonable  obligation  to  continue  or 
give  notice  of  discontinuance.  Persons  employing  labor 
on  a  like  continuous  service  should  be  held  to  some  reason- 
able limit  as  an  implied  contract,  to  be  vacated  only  on  no- 
tice and  with  reason. 

"If  the  common  interest  of  the  workman  is  recognized 
by  a  participation  in  the  profits,  he  can  see  that  he  has  no 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION,    1G9 

right  to  withdraw  without  notice,  and  so,  if  lie  expects  his 
wages  to  show  the  same  relation  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
business,  he  should  be  held  to  a  like  obligation.  He  lias 
no  right  to  strike  without  necessity  or  justice,  and  should 
be  punished  if  he  docs.  But,  after  all,  the  positively  co- 
operative form  of  conducting  industries  does  not  work 
well.  I  have  observed  it,  and  have  frequently  made  report 
of  it  to  other  governments,  as  well  as  to  our  own,  for  nearly 
thirty  years,  and  it  remains  but  the  smallest  possible  ele- 
ment of  our  case  now,  as  it  always  has  done.  The  vast 
majority  of  those  who  work  for  wages  would  be  unpleasant- 
ly burdened  and  obstructed  by  having  on  them  any  bus- 
iness cares  whatever.  The  proprietor  manages  infinitely 
better  for  them  than  they  can  manage  for  themselves.  It 
is  only  wonderful  that  such  vast  sums  can  be  earned  as 
wages,  and  can  be  paid  in  weekly  or  monthly  dividends  on 
business  investments. 

"The  workman  should  not  forget  that  there  is  no  obli- 
gation resting  on  any  other  man  to  employ  him  and  pay 
liim  wages.  The  burden  of  his  support  is  his  own  burden, 
and  for  all  opportunities  that  open  to  relieve  him  he  should 
be  grateful  to  those  who  open  them.  He  has  no  right  to 
quarrel  with  or  to  obstruct  an  employer  who  pays  him  as 
much  as  he  can  earn  for  himself.  An  attempt  at  a  definite 
system  of  contracting  for  employment  and  for  forfeiture  of 
some  part  of  the  wages  earned,  if  leaving  without  notice, 
was  recently  made  here  and  failed,  as  it  should  fail.  It  is 
better  for  both  parties  to  impose  no  absolute  conditions, 
none  involving  loss  of  wages  earned,  and  none  compelling 
payment  for  services  which  the  proprietor  does  not  get  or 
cannot  use.  Cannot  the  courts  be  authorized  to  hear  com- 
plaints of  broken  contracts  as  to  employment  and  wages, 
and  to  order  adjustments  on  the  principles  of  equity  ?  A 
court  of  equity  in  labor  and  wages,  with  i)o\vcr  to  enjoin 


170  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

against  acts  of  oppression,  or  of  combination  approacliing 
to  conspiracy,  would  be  a  probable  relief — proceedings  to 
be  had  only  on  the  application  of  a  number  of  citizens  al- 
leging injustice  under  oath." 

Hon.  W.  II.  Cole,  Member  of  Congress  from  the  Third  District 
of  Maryland. 

"  Strikes  and  lock-outs  seem  necessary  just  so  long  as 
the  determination  to  reduce  the  wages  of  the  working-man 
to  the  lowest  possible  limit  exists  in  this  country.  They 
are  greatly  to  be  deprecated,  and  I  regret  their  recurrence, 
because  they  so  often  cause  so  much  suffering  and  poverty 
among  the  worthy  and  deserving,  the  infirm  and  helpless. 
Arbitration  may  be  the  missing  coupling  between  Labor 
and  Capital,  but  of  this  I  am  not  able  to  decide.  It  seems 
to  me  to  be  decidedly  better  than  strikes  and  lock-outs, 
with  their  attendant  train  of  want  and  misery.  Perhaps  a 
plan  might  be  devised  to  remove  the  misery  resulting  from 
strikes.  I  have  pondered  over  the  subject  and  searched  in 
vain  among  the  writers  on  this  topic  for  a  plan  that  would 
remedy  this  evil.  Perhaps  a  plan  something  similar  to  the 
following  miglit  answer:  When  a  party  of  working-men, 
to  prevent  reduction  of  their  wages  below  starvation  prices, 
find  it  necessary  to  strike,  let  them  prepare  a  statement  of 
their  grievances  and  present  it  to  the  judge  of  the  nearCvSt 
court  of  record.  Let  it  be  the  duty  of  the  judge  to  notify 
the  employer  at  once  of  the  action  of  his  employes,  and 
require  a  prompt  answer  to  be  filed,  hear  the  case  out  of 
place,  and  decide  it  on  its  merits  right  away.  With  refer- 
ence to  the  third  interrogatory,  I  do  not  think  that  a  more 
equitable  basis  for  division  of  profits  arising  from  industrial 
enterprises  can  be  established  until  the  whole  of  the  present 
mode  be  done  away  with.  Now  it  is  the  design  and  effort 
of  the  huge  corporations  in  the  country  to  obtain  the  great- 


I 
1 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    1  71 

est  possible  amount  of  work  for  the  least  possible  amount 
of  pay.  The  fourth  interrogatory  is  in  the  domain  of  ex- 
periment, and  I  have  no  data  on  which  to  base  an  opinion. 
The  same  I  would  say  of  the  fifth  question.  The  truth  is 
that  all  the  legislation  of  the  past  quarter  of  a  century, 
municipal,  state,  and  national,  has  been  in  favor  of  monopo- 
ly and  against  the  interest  of  the  working-class.  Change 
this,  pass  wise  laws  protecting  Labor  in  its  rights,  and  the 
strain  alluded  to  by  you  in  your  communication  will  be 
less.  Injustice  is  done  the  toiler  on  every  hand ;  let  jus- 
tice be  done  him ;  let  him  receive  a  fair  compensation  for 
his  work,  and  then  you  have  at  once  a  satisfactory  solution 
of  all  these  questions." 

O.  F.  Cabpenter,  Esq.,  CMcafjo,  III. 

"  1.  Not  necessary  features  of  the  wage  system,  but 
mightily  irritating  to  capitalists,  although  not  profitable  to 
workmen,  and  may  be  requisite  to  bring  about  a  more  equi- 
table division  of  profits  between  employers  and  employes. 
Because  it  seems  phiin  that  if  employes,  as  a  class,  remain 
satisfied  with  their  wages,  employers  will  either  not  ad- 
vance them,  or,  in  case  of  a  bad  year  or  badly  managed 
business,  maybe  reduce  the  wages,  as  wages  are  usually  a 
large  item  of  every  business  enterprise,  and  the  first  one 
that  many  employers  try  to  reduce,  when  really  expenses 
ought  to  lessen  by  better  organization  and  better  methods 
all  around,  which  requires  more  brains  than  to  decide  on  a 
ten  or  fifteen  per  cent,  cut  all  arouTid.  Now  to  discourage 
these  arbitrary  reductions  and  to  encourage  employers  to 
look  at  the  weak  and  often  difficult  points,  quiet  strikes 
may  be  desirable,  and,  for  the  time  being,  necessary  steps 
to  arbitration  or  limited  industrial  partnerships. 

"  2.  Arbitration,  if  adopted  early,  must  certainly  be  bet- 
ter than  hasty  action,  cither  in  cutting  wages  or  in  striking  ; 


172 


THE    LAROU    I'UOHLEM. 


but  after  a  reduction  or  strike  is  ordered,  both  sides  are  so 
much  irritated  that  the  desire  for  fairness,  although  agree- 
ing to  arbitration,  is  often  absent. 

"  3.  I  hope  so.  Let  some  one  go  ahead  and  discover 
the  way. 

"4,  TIic  mutual  sharing  of  several  hundred  people— at 
very  different  salaries — in  a  business  seems  a  very  intricate 
problem  ;  or  if  each  has  an  interest  without  any  salary,  the 
fixing  of  such  share  would  be  as  difficult  as  determining 
wages;  and  as  each  person  naturally  thinks  his  services  of 
more,  or  as  much  value  as  any  one  else,  the  trouble  would 
be  to  get  some  one  at  the  head  of  the  firm  or  institution 
with  enough  character  to  make  all  the  employes  accept  his 
ideas  of  the  right  proportion. 

"  5.  The  same  trouble  would  arise  as  in  No.  4,  although, 
as  intelligence  increases  among  workmen,  they  might  be 
induced  to  accept  a  share  (although  not  what  they  thought 
their  due)  as  better  than  an  out  and  out  salary  if  accom- 
panied with  an  appearance  of  freedom  and  a  certain  share 
in  the  councils  of  the  business.  But  this  would  require 
considerable  unselfishness  in  all  employes  io  make  them 
work  exclusively  for  the  firm,  and  not  for  their  relations, 
their  friends,  or  themselves." 

John  Roemer,  Esq.,  Wheeling,  West  Va. 

"The  combination  of  Labor  is  necessary  to  command  re- 
spect, and  to  enforce  obedience  to  their  reasonable  demands. 
My  platform  is  as  follows:  Co-operation  where  possible; 
to  become  their  own  employers  and  employes;  arbitration, 
when  differences  arise,  by  a  competent  board  of  arbitrators  ; 
equalization  and  division  of  profits  between  Capital  and 
Labor;  prohibition  of  importation  of  any  article  that  can 
be  made  and  produced  in  this  country ;  abolishing  of  cor- 
poration laws  by  States  and  Territories;  prohibiting  the  sale 


SEVEllAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  173 

of  anything  without  actual  delivery  of  the  article  sold,  pun- 
ishable by  fine  and  iniprisonnieiit ;  i^'overinnent  control  and 
regulation  of  all  railroads  and  telegraphs;  the  government 
to  appropriate  not  exceeding  .§50,000,000  a  year,  to  be 
used,  or  as  much  thereof  as  is  necessary,  to  furnish  trans- 
portation and  twelve  months'  support  to  any  citizen  of  the 
United  States  who  wishes  to  become  an  actual  settler  on 
one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  government  land  without 
means,  the  amount  furnished  to  be  a  lien  on  his  land,  and 
title  retained  until  the  same  is  paid  back." 

Julius  Bleyer,  Esq.,  of  the  '"EceniiigWiscomin,"  Milwaukee, 
Wis. 

"The  cause  of  the  differences  between  capitalists  and 
their  employes  lies  deeper  than  mere  disagreement  as  to 
method,  or  objection  to  rate  of  compensation ;  it  lies  so 
deep  that  nothing  short  of  a  regeneration  of  mankind  will 
solve  the  problem.  In  the  struggle  for  success  —  which 
nowadays  is  measured  from  a  financial  stand-point  —  the 
growth  of  avarice  is  stimulated  and  the  finer  sensibilities 
blunted.  Trade  and  manufacture  is  a  mighty  scramble  for 
dollars,  and  he  is  most  successful  who  purchases  his  raw 
materials  for  the  lowest  figure,  converts  thcjii  witli  the  least 
expenditure,  and  sells  the  product  at  the  highest  market 
rate.  The  working-man,  in  order  to  be  successful,  must 
sell  his  labor  at  the  highest  possible  price,  and  rcplenislj 
the  waste  with  the  least  possible  expenditure,  lie  is  on 
tlie  same  level  with  Capital  in  the  scramble.  As  manu- 
facturers and  tradesmen  sometimes  find  it  necessary  to 
combine  in  order  to  prevent  over-production  or  ruinous  com- 
petition, so  Labor,  banded  for  protection,  occasionally  en- 
deavors to  prevent  Capital  from  lowering  the  rate  of  com- 
pensation;  or,  deeming  the  rate  too  low  in  com[)arison 
with  tli(;  [)ercentagc  of  profit  made  by  the  capitalist,  tries  to 


174  TlIK    LADOU    I'UOULEM. 

obtain  an  advance.  These  efforts  of  Capital  and  Labor  arc 
right  or  wrong  according  to  the  degree  of  avarice  tliat 
prompts  tliera  ;  and  the  obstinacy  with  whicli  tlieir  strug- 
gles are  prolonged  is  proof  that  reason  is  borne  down 
by  the  evil  attribute  either  on  one  side  or  the  other, 
"When  reason  is  thus  dethroned — and  in  what  strike  is  it 
not?  —  arbitration  may  temporarily  solve  the  difficulty. 
Both  sides  having  worn  out  argument,  doggedly  refuse  to 
make  the  least  concession — sometimes  out  of  pure  anger, 
but  oftencr  for  fear  of  raillery  by  their  fellows.  And  right 
here  it  may  be  stated  that  in  many  instances  this  fear  of 
raillery  locks  the  lips  of  the  majority  at  meetings  of  work- 
ing-men, and  permits  the  talking  minority  to  order  a  strike. 
When  this  condition  of  things  exists  a  third  party  may 
succeed  in  securing  concessions  from  both  sides  and  event- 
ually restore  harmony. 

"  Co-operation  as  a  remedy  for  the  uncertainty  that  now 
exists  lacks  solidity  of  basis.  Harmony  is  highly  essential 
to  success  in  enterprises  of  this  nature,  and  unless  the  co- 
workers can  agree  each  to  fill  a  certain  position,  and  not 
murmur  if  any  of  their  fellows  have  less  drudgery  or  toil, 
there  will  be  dissensions.  All  cannot  be  managers,  and  with- 
out proper  management  there  can  be  no  success,  and  fit- 
ness alone  must  nominate  the  leaders,  not  the  ballot,  as  the 
latter  force  has  fallen  far  short  of  the  ideal  of  the  founders 
of  the  greatest  co-operative  institution  on  the  globe — the 
United  States  of  America. 

"  Industrial  partnerships  embracing  a  mutual  participa- 
tion in  the  profits — according  Capital  its  legitimate  share — 
would  seem  to  be  the  Utopia  of  industrial  fellowship.  But 
this  would  call  for  the  regeneration  of  mankind,  without 
which  no  solution  of  the  labor  problem  is  possible.  To 
make  the  scheme  a  success.  Capital  must  accord  Labor  the 
privilege  of  supervising  its  accounts  and  levying  tribute  in 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    1  Vo 

proportion  to  the  profits  shown  therein  ;  ^Y]lile  Labor,  on 
the  other  hand,  must  stand  ready  to  refund  wages  paid 
should  tlie  books  show  loss  instead  of  profit.  Can  any  one 
imagine  any  number  of  working-men  who  would  be  willing 
to  toil  for  an  nncertainty  ?  Can  any  one  imagine  even  a 
small  number  of  capitalists  who  would  risk  their  wealth  in 
large  enterprises  except  under  inducement  of  large  returns? 
The  idea  of  mutual  participation  in  profits  is  plainly  bor- 
rowed from  far-off  Utopia,  and  must  give  way  to  the  more 
practical  method  of  the  arbitrator,  who,  even  among  the 
great  powers  of  Europe,  is  looked  upon  with  so  ranch  fa- 
vor that  war  as  a  means  of  settlement  of  national  differ- 
ences is  fast  becoming  obsolete.  So,  in  the  struggle  between 
Capital  and  Labor  the  arbitrator  must  take  the  place  of  the 
lock-out  and  the  strike." 

C.  O.  BoRENG,  Esq.,  Chicago,  III. 

*'  In  so  complex  a  problem  no  one  remedy  can  be  hoped 
for  which  will  cure  all  the  ills,  as  with  each  readjustment 
the  entire  problem  will  present  a  different  phase.  Of  one 
thing  wc  may  be  sure,  i.e.,  strikes  and  lock-outs  will  con- 
tinue, and  indeed  be  necessary,  unless  some  more  power- 
ful hand  than  that  of  mere  force  of  public  opinion  shall 
coerce  the  great  antagonistic  organizations  of  Capital  and 
Labor,  The  great  difficulty,  as  I  see  it,  in  the  way  of  arbi- 
tration at  present,  is  the  mutual  misunderstanding  and  fear 
of  each  class  by  the  other.  The  short  cut  to  the  solution 
of  this  is  a  system  of  public  enlightenment  which  shall  as- 
sist each  to  appreciate  the  exact  condition  of  the  other  in 
relation  to  themselves.  With  such  assistance,  arbitration 
may  finally  be  able  to  prevent  clashing,  but  can  never  set- 
tle the  problem.  The  final  solution  lies  in  your  fifth  ques- 
tion, which  is  rather  a  suggestion,  if  the  problem  is  ever 
settled.      Is  this  possil>le   in   the   I'liiti.'d   Slates?      Not  at 


IVG  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

present.  Our  labor  classes  are  not  yet  settled  in  coniniuni- 
tics  where  tiicy  can  or  will  be  able  to  remain  permanently. 
This  is  an  absolute  necessity  before  co-operation  can  be  ex- 
pected at  all.  Our  laborers  are  not  acquainted  with  each 
other,  nor  can  they  become  so  acquainted  until  broujzht 
together  by  an  organizer,  who  is  usually  a  capitalist.  When 
Capital  realizes,  as  it  must  eventually,  that  co-operation 
will  improve  production,  increase  earnings,  and  facilitate 
improvements,  then  co-operation  will  be  possible  and  profit- 
able. That  laborers  can  unite  and  thus  secure  co-operation 
is  not  possible  at  the  present  state  of  the  social  problem, 
except  in  a  few  of  the  older  manufacturing  centres." 

Hon.  J.  M.  Swank,  General  Manager  American  Iron  and  Steel 
Association,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

"Unfortunately,  arbitration  in  this  country,  which  has 
been  sanctioned  and  regulated  by  law,  but  not  enforced  by 
it,  has  been  of  little  avail  in  the  settlement  of  disputes  be- 
tween employers  and  employes.  All  other  arbitration,  being 
merely  an  appeal  to  the  reason  of  both  sets  of  disputants, 
has  existed  since  the  world  began,  and  is  not,  therefore,  a 
new  remedy  for  anything.  Compulsory  arbitration,  that  is, 
arbitration  with  a  sheriff  or  a  posse  of  soldiers  behind  it, 
to  compel  obedience  to  its  decisions,  is  foreign  to  the  ge- 
nius of  our  institutions,  and  neither  employers  nor  employes 
desire  it.  We  may  be  certain  that  we  will  not  see  it  in 
our  day.  "Wherein  is  the  element  of  justice  in  compulsory 
arbitration  that  would  compel  an  employer  to  pay  wages 
that  he  cannot  afford,  and  that  might  bankrupt  him,  or  that 
would  compel  a  working-man  to  labor  for  lower  wages  than 
he  believes  he  is  entitled  to  receive?  Voluntary  arbitration 
between  a  particular  employer  and  his  workmen,  or  between 
a  body  of  employers  and  a  body  of  working-nicn,  is,  how- 
ever, desirable ;  and  yet  we  have  seen  at  Pittsburg  how  even 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    177 

this  kind  of  arbitration,  operating  through  the  Wallace  Act, 
has  failed  to  prevent  strikes  and  their  attendant  evil  con- 
sequences. 

"  Productive  co-operation  is  a  plant  that  has  never  taken 
kindly  to  American  soil.  The  element  of  confidence  be- 
tween man  and  man  appears  to  have  always  been  lacking — 
the  certainty  that  every  man  was  doing  his  full  share,  and 
that  there  was  the  necessary  amount  of  brains  at  the  head 
of  the  management.  Then,  too,  manufacturing  enterprises 
in  our  day  and  in  our  country  require  large  capital  to  ren- 
der them  successful,  and  any  number  of  working-men  may 
not  have  this  necessary  handmaid  to  labor.  Even  if  a 
body  of  working-men  should  be  financially  able  to  build 
or  buy  a  manufacturing  establishment,  what  is  to  become 
of  them  and  their  families  in  dull  times,  when  it  would 
be  difficult  to  secure  orders  at  any  prices,  and  when  they 
might  be  compelled  to  cease  all  operations  through  a  total 
lack  of  demand  for  their  products?  Capital  is  needed  to 
tide  over  periods,  and  often  very  long  periods,  of  depres- 
sion. There  will  be  very  little  co-operation  in  this  coun- 
try except  in  the  supply  of  the  necessaries  of  life.  But  as 
a  substitute  for  co-operation  there  exists  no  reason  why  a 
working-man  who  has  saved  something  out  of  his  earnings 
should  not  bny  a  few  shares  of  stock  in  the  company  or 
corporation  which  has  given  him  emplovment.  An  em- 
ploye of  the  Pennsylvania  liailroad  ('ompany  can  buy  stock 
in  that  company  as  well  as  a  millionaire,  and  an  empl()y6 
of  the  Cambria  Iron  Company  who  has  money  in  the  sav- 
ings-bank can  buy  stock  in  that  company  if  lie  so  desires. 

"  There  can  be  no  objection  to  the  scheme  of  profit-shar- 
ing if  manufacturers  can  be  induced  to  adopt  it.  It  is  on 
its  face  more  practicable  as  a  reniedv  for  the  frequent  dif- 
ferences between  working-men  and  tlu-ir  emplovers.  and  as 
a  barrier  to  the  widfiiing  gulf  between  the  rich  and  the 

1'2 


178  THE    LABOR    PKOBLEM. 

poor,  than  cither  arbitration  or  co-operation.  But  is  it  so 
in  reality?  Will  manufacturers  consent  to  share  their  prof- 
its with  their  workmen  after  paying  them  fair  wages?  We 
doubt  it.  We  can  see  that  they  might  do  this  from  con- 
siderations that  appeal  to  their  sense  of  justice  as  well  as 
to  their  business  instincts,  but  manufacturers  are  like  other 
people :  they  have  in  them  a  great  deal  of  human  nature. 
Especially  do  they  believe  that  when  the  times  are  good 
the}'  are  justified  in  recouping  themselves  for  losses  sus- 
tained when  the  times  have  been  bad.  We  fear  that  prof- 
it-sharing will  not  become  a  marked  feature  of  the  manu- 
facturing industries  of  our  country  until  we  approach  much 
nearer  to  the  millennium  than  we  have  yet  done." 

David  H.  Mason,  Esq.,  CMcago,  111. 

"  Only  an  outline  of  hints  at  my  views  can  be  compressed 
into  the  very  small  space  to  which  you  are  obliged  to  limit 
me.  Let  me  briefly  answer  your  questions  by  their  several 
numbers. 

"  1.  Strikes  and  lock-outs  evidence  friction,  and  friction 
evidences  an  abnormal  condition  in  the  working  of  any 
kind  of  machinery,  the  wage  system  being  itself  a  sort  of 
machinery,  or  improved  mode  of  coupling  the  exertions  of 
the  capitalist  and  the  laborer — a  mode  far  superior  to  that 
of  slavery. 

"  2.  Arbitration  also  evidences  friction.  There  would 
be  no  arbitration  needed  unless  there  was  friction  to  be 
overcome.  Arbitration  is,  therefore,  to  the  wage  system 
what  oil  is  to  clogged  machinery,  and  emblemizes  a  com- 
promise between  opposing  forces. 

"  3.  The  wage  system  is  only  one  of  the  way-stations 
on  the  route  of  development.  For  a  series  of  centuries  the 
general  condition  of  the  laborer  has  been  constantly  im- 
proving.   His  right  to  wages,  and  even  to  good  pay,  is  now 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  179 

almost  universally  conceded.  But  it  was  not  so  always. 
At  one  time  the  laborer  was  a  serf,  attached  to  the  soil,  and 
transferred  with  it  as  so  much  property,  by  sale  or  by  con- 
quest. Often  he  carried  about  his  neck  a  collar,  with  an 
inscription  which  showed  that  he  was  born  a  slave,  and  be- 
longed to  a  particular  master.  In  that  day  any  serious 
talk  about  compensation  for  hibor  would  have  been  con- 
sidered as  wickedly  innovating,  and  as  worthy  of  merciless 
punishment.  Through  a  natural  process  the  slave  worked 
out  his  freedom.  His  toil  was  unproductive,  because  there 
was  in  it  neither  heart  nor  hope.  He  produced  little,  and 
got  little.  The  master  soon  saw  that  he  could  increase  his 
profits  by  tempting  the  slave  to  increased  task-work,  giving 
him  all  the  surplus  he  could  earn  after  finishing  his  task. 
With  this  partial  liberty  of  working  for  himself  came  the 
stimulus  of  hope  ;  he  worked  harder  for  himself  than  when 
working  for  his  master.  It  was  finally  seen  that  more  ex- 
ertion could  be  obtained  from  him,  and  at  a  really  cheaper 
rate,  by  paying  him  wages  than  in  any  other  way. 

"  After  a  considerable  period  of  trial  this  system  is  now 
rapidly  advancing  to  new  stages  of  development.  The  la- 
borer perceives  that  the  capitalist  realizes  a  profit  upon  the 
hire  of  services,  and  knows  that  all  this  gain  would  be  his 
own  could  he  only  discover  some  way  of  self-employment. 
Co-operative  societies  of  various  kinds  have  grown  out  of 
this  view  of  the  subject.  It  thus  seems  that  co-operation 
of  one  sort  and  another  is  to  embody  the  next  great  fun- 
damental ste[)  of  progress  that  will  be  taken  by  the  laborer 
in  his  slow  and  pamful  movement  from  a  state  of  slavery 
to  one  of  full  power  of  self-assertion  and  of  self-direction. 
Here  may  be  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  idea  that  antagonism 
between  the  capitalist  and  laborer  will  cease  when  the  la- 
borer shall  himself  beiiome  a  capitalist.  J^abor  will  then 
mean  only  healthful  exercise,  with  few  hours  and  large  re- 


180  THE    LABOR    PROULKM. 

muneration,  bereft  of  the  wage  system.  ]3iit  until  then, 
as  one  difticnlty  of  the  labor  problem  shall  be  settled,  an- 
other difficulty,  on  a  higher  plane  of  justice,  will  gradually 
emerge  from  the  adjustment,  in  its  turn  requiring  consider- 
ation, just  as  the  emancipation  of  the  Southern  slaves  was 
followed  by  the  necessity  for  civil  rights,  and  the  granting 
of  those  is  now  supplemented  by  the  need  of  education  to 
fit  the  liberated  blacks  to  exercise  intelligently  and  benefi- 
cially the  franchises  of  citizenship. 

"Meanwhile,  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  the  wel- 
fare and  the  progress  of  the  laborer  are  inseparably  bound 
up  in  the  increase  and  activity  of  Capital ;  and  that  both 
strikes  and  lock-outs,  by  arresting  and  delaying  that  increase 
and  activity,  are  very  injurious  to  the  laborer.  History 
demonstrates  that  Capital  is  the  great  leveller.  It  is  the  la- 
borer's untiring  co-worker  and  unfailing  friend,  and  will  ul- 
timately redeem  him  from  every  species  of  thraldom.  The 
more  plentiful  and  the  more  active  it  can  be  made  the 
sooner  will  arrive  that  grand  day  of  universal  emancipa- 
tion. 

"  4  and  5.  The  labor  question  is,  so  to  speak,  a  tree  the 
roots  of  which  burrow  deeply  into  the  soil  of  slavery,  and 
the  trunk  of  which  develops  up,  through  drudgery,  toil,  la- 
bor, and  work,  to  exercise,  which  is  the  antithesis  of  slaver}^ 
and  is  what  the  flower  is  to  the  root.  Industrial  partner- 
ship and  productive  co-operation,  as  well  as  co-operation 
for  distribution,  are  legitimate  branches  of  that  tree.  They 
are  in  perfect  consonance  with  the  great  law  discovered 
and  formulated  by  Henry  C.  Carey — the  law  governing  the 
distribution  of  labor's  products,  whereby  the  proportion  of 
the  laborer  increases  with  the  increase  in  the  productive- 
ness of  effort,  the  proportion  of  the  capitalist  as  steadily 
diminishing  with  constant  increase  of  quantity,  and  with 
equally  constant  tendency  towards  equality  among  the  va- 


SEVERAL  PUASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    181 

rious  portions  of  wliicli  society  is  composed.  They  are 
in  consonance  also  with  the  general  socictary  law  that  the 
first  and  greatest  want  of  man  is  association  with  his  fel- 
low-men." 

John  C.  Saksfield,  Esq.,  Associate  Editor  of  "  Our  Country," 
New  York  City. 

"Regarding  the  snbject-inattcr  of  your  letter  as  one  of 
great  importance  at  this  time,  and  which  in  the  near  future 
must  command  the  serious  attention  of  the  student,  phi- 
losopher, statesman,  and  patriot,  I  must  compliment  you 
for  your  efforts  'to  spread  the  light.' 

"  1.  Strikes  are  never  defensible  except  as  a  last  resort 
against  the  exactions  and  dictum  of  Capital.  In  that  sense 
only  are  they  a  necessary  feature  of  the  wage  system.  A 
strike  is  the  most  wasteful  form  of  protest.  Its  settlement, 
pro  or  con,  establishes  no  principle  useful  in  the  guidance 
of  future  contests.  Lock-outs  arc  entirely  without  defence 
if  the  question  of  morals  is  permitted  to  enter  into  the  de- 
termination of  the  labor  question.  The  industrial  problem 
is  a  moral  one,  and  unless  viewed  from  that  stand-point  does 
not  admit  of  fixed  settlement,  hence  lock-outs  should  not 
be  regarded  as  a  necessary  feature  of  the  wage  system. 

"2.  Arbitration  is  a  missing  link.  The  chain  is  broken 
in  so  many  places  that  it  cannot  repair  all  the  fractures. 
It  is  an  advance  from  the  crudeness  of  the  strike,  with  its 
privation  and  waste,  up  to  a  rational  means  of  settlement 
of  disputes  between  employer  and  employe.  It  is  the  pri- 
mary step  in  the  evolution  of  the  labor  question. 

"  3.  This  opens  up  a  wide  field.  Its  fullest  aflirmativc 
demonstration  would  require  more  space  and  time  than 
either  of  us  could  afTord  to  give  to  it  at  this  moment.  Suf- 
fice it  to  say  that  in  the  discovery  and  application  of  the 
system  implied  in  the  question  we  shall  have  made  a  de- 


lbL5  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

cidcd  advance  in  the  evolution  of  the  industiial  problem. 
It  seems  to  me  to  be  the  posture  which  the  question  before 
us  must  necessarily  reach  in  the  next  decade.  It  has  been 
successfully  demonstrated  in  various  localities  in  France, 
especially  so  at  the  Social  Palace  at  Guise,  in  that  country, 
where  one  thousand  seven  hundred  toilers  are  sharers  in  the 
[trofits  of  that  immense  establishment.  Its  value  must  be 
admitted  when  the  volume  of  products  is  constantly  aug- 
menting and  their  quality  correspondingly  improved.  In 
our  country  the  principle  has  been  sparingly  applied  at 
some  few  flouring  mills  in  Minnesota,  and  its  benefits  to 
the  employers  conceded,  as  evidenced  by  the  increased  price 
received  for  their  products,  which  is  primarily  due  to  the 
greater  care  and  skill  exhibited  by  the  wage-earners  in  their 
capacity  as  profit-sharers. 

"  4.  This  query  is  involved  in  your  third,  and  the  re- 
sponse to  that  covers  in  a  large  measure  its  answer. 

"5.  To  answer  that  in  Yankee  fashion,  I  would  repeat 
your  query  and  ask.  Has  it  ever  been  made  so  anywhere 
else?  If  yes,  why  not  here  ?  The  industrial  successes  that 
have  accompanied  all  community  enterprises,  like  the  Shak- 
ers, Perfectionists  at  Oneida,  N.  Y.,  and  Dunkers,  have 
been  due  to  the  presence  of  co-operative  principles.  The 
mental  ability  and  mechanical  skill  of  these  parties,  as  a 
whole,  is  not  superior  to  the  'world's  people.'  What  has 
been  accomplished  by  them  under  the  eyes  of  the  w'orld's 
people  should  have  weight  in  according  an  affirmative  re- 
sponse to  your  fifth  query.  A  potent  factor  in  the  success 
which  the  community  enterprises  of  this  country  have 
achieved,  has  been  the  recognition  which  they  have  accord- 
ed to  the  moral  question  as  the  fundamental  basis  of  all 
their  industrial  undertakings.  It  is  assumed  to  be  unnec- 
essary to  refer  to  the  success  that  co-operative  societies  have 
reached  in  England,  because  they  are  as  familiar  as  house- 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    183 

hold  words  to  people  who  have  given  these  matters  any 
attention.  Industrial  co-operation  is  the  highest  phase  of 
evolution  in  the  labor  problem.  When  it  is  established 
the  day  of  deliverance  is  at  hand  for  the  man,  woman,  and 
child  whose  heritage  is  poverty  and  toil.  If  '  productive 
co-operation  is  not  practical  in  the  United  States,'  then  all 
hope  of  industrial  freedom  the  world  over  is  but  a  baseless 
dream." 

A  corretpondent  wlio  prefers  that  his  name  sfumkl  not  be  vsed  in 
this  connection  writes  : 

"What  arc  the  questions?  Are  they  fairly  placed  be- 
fore the  public  ?  That  there  is  antagonism  between  many 
employers  and  their  employes  is  true,  but  if  it  be  a  fact 
that  between  many  others  in  the  same  lines  of  industry,  of 
equally  lengthy  connections,  there  has  been  no  shadow  of 
difference,  is  it  fair  to  say  that  there  is  a  natural  and  irre- 
pressible conflict  between  Capital  and  Labor?  If  for  each 
employer  who,  averaging  to  employ  one  hundred  or  one 
thousand  men,  has  had  his  business  either  stopped  or  crip- 
pled many  times  in  the  past  ten  years,  or  five  years,  through 
strikes  and  difScultics  with  help,  there  can  be  found,  not 
simply  one,  but  many  employers,  each  employing  as  many 
men,  their  business  dating  back  twenty  years,  and  still  who 
have  suffered  from  no  strikes,  is  it  fair  to  say  that  strikes 
are  a  legitimate  result  or  accompaniment  of  the  wage  sys- 
tem ?  Who  that  has  been  observant  has  not  known  man- 
nfacturing  establishments  where  wages  sufficient  were  paid 
to  make  all  employed  and  their  families  comfortable,  whose 
manhood  was  recognized  and  respected  by  employers,  and 
the  employed  did  not  feel  that  it  was  a  necessity  for  them 
to  be  constantly  on  the  lookout  to  prevent  their  rights  from 
being  trampled  upon,  but  who,  seeing  in  the  success  and 
permanent  })ro8perity  of  their  employers  good  wages  and 


184  THE    LADOR    PROBLEM. 

permanent  employment  for  themselves,  took  hold  with  a 
will,  and  felt  an  jionest  pride  in  doing  the  best  work  of 
which  they  were  capable,  and  in  sufficient  quantity  to  in- 
sure the  realization  of  profits  by  those  who  carried  the 
risk  and  burden  of  investment  and  management?  Such 
relations  may  have  been,  but  are  not  now,  does  somebody 
say  ?  You  are  mistaken.  Such  conditions  do  exist  in 
thousands  of  instances. 

"  In  this  very  city  where  these  lines  are  penned,  with  its 
population  increased  within  the  time  in  which  the  writer 
has  known  it  well,  from  five  thousand  or  six  thousand  to 
nearly  thirty  thousand,  through  its  manufacturing  interests 
— as  essentially  a  manufacturing  place  as  any  in  the  entire 
country — there  have  been  no  strikes,  no  labor  difficulties. 
The  history  of  the  place  for  the  past  half  century  would 
include  as  a  prominent  feature  many,  many,  many  instances 
of  thoughtful  care  on  the  part  of  employers  for  the  best 
interests  of  those  whom  they  employed,  while  on  the  other 
hand  the  instances  would  come  to  light  by  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  daily,  hourly,  constant  occurrence,  in  which 
workers  for  wages — simple  wages,  not  participation — have 
willingly,  eagerly,  proudly  striven  to  increase  the  produc- 
tion of  their  hands  through  greater  individual  effort,  through 
combination  of  action,  through  invention,  and  the  improve- 
ment of  facilities,  to  the  end  that  the  general  business  of 
the  place  might  increase,  and  that  the  mines  which  they 
were  working  daily  without  investment,  without  risk,  should 
continue  to  pay.  Employers  have  been  tyrants,  have  they  ? 
Working-men  have  been  living  in  a  condition  of  poverty 
or  enslavement,  have  they  ?  Let  us  look  into  this  a  little. 
See  this  magnificent  turnout,  this  pair  of  splendid  horses. 
The  carriage  and  harness  and  all  the  appointments  are  in 
keeping.  A  liveried  driver  has  them  in  charge.  Who 
dares  to  so  insult  the  common  people?     What  right  has 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LADOR  QUESTION.    185 

any  man  to  indulge  in  such  extravagance  while  so  many 
must  walk  ?  Who  is  this  old  white-haired  man,  broad  of 
shoulder  and  straight  of  limb,  as  erect  as  though  but  a 
score  of  years  had  passed  over  him  instead  of  more  than 
three-score-and-ten,  which  have  whitened  his  hair,  but  not 
bent  his  form  or  impaired  his  intellect?  He  is  the  owner 
of  the  fine  turnout.  He  is  President  of  the  Roll  and  Stamp 
Brass  Company.  Why  does  he  walk?  Where  is  he  going 
at  a  time  in  the  morning  when  men  and  women,  boys  and 
girls  are  hurrying  along  to  get  to  their  different  places  of 
employment  before  the  seven  o'clock  whistles  blow  ?  Let's 
ask  him.  That  wc  are  working-men  need  make  no  differ- 
ence. He  has  a  cheery  '  How  do  you  do  ?'  and  hearty  hand- 
shake for  anybody  whom  he  has  ever  met,  and  whose  man- 
ners command  respect.  He  snubs  no  man  because  he  is  a 
mechanic  or  laborer.  What  does  he  say  ?  Listen  !  '  I 
make  it  a  point  to  be  at  the  mill  before  the  whistle  blows. 
I  find  that  the  exercise  of  walking  back  and  forth  is  a  ben- 
efit to  my  health.'  Yes,  but  he  is  not  a  working-man  ;  what 
does  he  go  to  the  mill  for?  Why,  he  is  worth  millions  of 
dollars.  He  is  one  of  the  hated  capitalists.  Let's  go  to 
the  mill  and  see  him  for  a  little  while  in  the  'soft  place' 
which  Labor  in  imagination  fixes  for  all  men  who  do  not 
roll  up  their  sleeves  and  labor  physically.  Ah  !  he  is  busy 
poring  over  some  book  of  accounts,  fixing  some  prices  of 
goods,  adjusting  some  losses  sustained  through  failing  or 
rascally  creditors,  devising  means  to  meet  the  notes  of  oth- 
er men  who  liavc  let  them  go  to  protest,  directing  the  la- 
bors of  a  score  of  accountants  and  clerks,  answering  (jues- 
tions  from  men  in  charge  of  different  departments  of  labor 
in  the  mill,  figuring  out  some  means  of  still  wringing  a 
profit  out  of  the  manufacture  of  goods,  the  raw  material  of 
which  has  advanced  in  price,  or  the  soiling  price  of  which 
has  been  cut  down  in  market  to  less  than  cost  by  some  un- 


18G  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

scrupulous  competitor  wlio  only  wants  to  get  the  work  into 
his  hands — if  it  don't  pay,  something  else  will  carry  it  along 
until  lie  runs  the  others  out,  and  then  he  will  mark  the 
price  up  ;  and  still  amid  it  all  this  '  grand  old  man '  greets 
us  as  cheerily  as  he  did  when  we  met  him  along  by  the 
city  park  this  morning,  with  his  half-mile  walk  before  him 
to  get  to  the  mill.  'He  will  be  at  leisure  in  a  few  min- 
utes— will  we  be  seated  V  Ah  !  here  comes  the  mail.  Let 
us  watch  him  as  he  opens  letter  after  letter,  and  takes  in 
their  purport — orders,  bills,  remittances.  How  rapidly  they 
are  disposed  of !  Fifty,  one  hundred  of  them,  and  still  a 
few  minutes  has  sufficed  to  fix  the  requirements  of  each  on 
the  well-trained  mind,  and  to  assort  and  place  them  so  that 
subordinates  shall  know  what  disposition  to  make  of  each. 
Now  he  is  at  liberty.  *  What  can  he  do  for  us  ?'  We  want 
a  bit  of  sheet  brass,  or  a  small  quantity  of  wire,  or  a  few 
pounds  of  rivets  of  some  peculiar  quality  or  of  some  special 
size  or  shape  which  needs  that  something  shall  be  done  a 
little  out  of  the  regular  line ;  they  can't  be  taken  out  of 
stock,  and  this  millionaire,  president  of  a  great  company 
doing  a  business  of  a  million  of  dollars  annually,  is  listen- 
ing to  our  statement  of  what  we  want.  Does  he  say  I 
have  no  time  to  be  troubled  with  a  matter  so  trivial  ?  No. 
lie  says,  '  I  guess  I  had  better  go  into  the  mill  with  you 
and  put  this  in  the  hands  of  the  man  in  charge  of  the  de- 
partment best  calculated  to  do  the  work.  You  can  explain 
it  to  him  better  than  I  can.'  Now  we  are  in  the  mill  with 
the  millionaire  manager  and  financier.  How  familiar  he 
seems  with  the  men,  and  with  every  detail  of  the  work. 
How  quickly  he  makes  answers  to  settle  knotty  questions 
which  have  arisen  on  different  operations.  All  through 
from  stock-yard  to  casting-room,  to  rolls,  to  muffler-slitters, 
draw-benches,  wire-blocks,  pickle-vats,  among  lathes,  plan- 
ers, presses,  drops,  rivet- machines,  through    cutting   and 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    187 

drawing-up  room,  through  stamping  and  spinning  room, 
from  the  drawing  up  of  a  ferrule  or  thimble  to  the  spin- 
ning up  of  a  thirty-gallon  kettle,  or  the  drawing  up  of  a 
steam-boiler  without  seam  on  the  great  hydraulic  bench, 
he  is  familiar  with  it  all. 

"How  is  it?  Let  me  ask  this  old  man  who  has  just 
taken  from  the  picklc-tub  a  coil  of  wire  and  is  rinsing  off 
the  acid — the  man  with  the  green  hair  and  beard,  which 
have  turned  green  from  the  fumes  of  acid  and  metal — the 
man  who  has  tied  about  liis  waist  an  apron  which  is  dri[)- 
ping  wet,  and  wliose  clothes  generallj'  look  damp,  while  lie 
stands  on  a  floor  so  wet  that  you  wonder  he  don't  '  catch 
his  death  of  cold.'  He  ought  to  know.  lie  does.  Lis- 
ten :  '  I've  worked  here  fifty  years.  The  president  and  I 
used  to  work  side-by-side.  Yes,  sir,  for  a  good  many  years 
lie  used  to  come  to  the  mill  in  the  morning  with  his  din- 
ner in  a  tin  pail,  and  worked  as  many  hours  and  as  hard  as 
any  of  us.  He  knows  about  this  kind  of  business.  AVhy, 
bless  you,  he  has  been  all  through  it ;  he  can  do  it  now. 
Good  man  to  work  for?  do  I  like  him?  I'd  do  anything 
in  the  world  for  him.  Why,  he  is  the  best  friend  I  have  in 
the  world.  When  I  got  hurt  and  was  laid  up  for  months 
he  paid  the  doctor,  and  my  wages  went  on  just  the  same, 
and  he  used  to  run  in  to  see  how  I  was  getting  along.  Is 
it  particular  work  running  a  pickle-tub?  Yes,  sir.  It's 
got  to  be  done  just  right,  just  as  much  as  running  a  train 
of  rolls  or  a  draw-bench,  or  doing  any  other  part  of  the 
work.  I've  been  at  it  so  long  that  it  don't  bother  mc  much 
now,  but  the  time  was  when  I  could  hardly  sleep  nights 
for  the  worry  and  care.  Would  I  like  to  have  some  big- 
ger job,  have  more  care,  and  get  bigger  pay  ?  No,  sir. 
This  is  all  I  want  to  attend  to,  and  I  get  a  good  living. 
My  children  arc  all  doing  well,  and  my  wife  and  I  don't 
need  a  great  deal  to   make  us   happy.     Do  you  see   (hat 


188  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

fleshy,  gray -liai rod  man  giving  directions  about  the  roll- 
ing? lie  has  been  here  lifty  years,  too.  A  good  many 
years  ago  he  got  the  job  of  superintending  the  rolling — 
gets  a  big  salary.  He  is  worth  $50,000.  He  drives  just 
as  good  a  team  as  tlie  president  does.  What  do  I  think 
about  legislating  to  try  to  divide  things  up  a  little  more 
equally  ?  I'll  tell  you  what  I  think.  Here's  we  three  men 
— the  president,  the  boss  roller,  and  I.  I  couldn't  fill  either 
of  their  places,  the  boss  roller  couldn't  fill  the  president's 
place,  you  couldn't  keep  the  president  down  to  either  of 
our  places,  and  there'd  be  no  more  use  passing  laws  on  the 
subject  than  there  would  in  passing  a  law  that  there  should 
be  no  small  potatoes  in  a  hill.' " 

J.  ViNCEJfT  Taylor,  Esq.,  Commercial  Editor  of  the  "United 
States  Sewing-machine  I'tmes,"  New  York. 

"  To  answer  No.  1  promptly,  no  strike  or  lock-out  can 
be  a  necessary  feature  in  the  furtherance  of  any  indus- 
trial scheme,  though  it  is  seemingly  alleged  to  be  some- 
times compulsory  to  resort  to  them.  Why  so  ?  The  work- 
ing-classes of  America  are  presumed  to  be  intellectually  in 
advance  of  those  of  Europe  and  of  the  last  decade,  and  so 
the  'dignity'  of  labor  aspires  to  something  more  in  keep- 
ing with  that  dignity,  which  in  some  way  aims  to  be  class- 
ed as  a  species  of  capital  in  itself,  arranging  its  growing 
importance  as  '  pliysical  capital,'  and  thus  supplies  the 
want  of  one  of  your  eminent  contributors  to  this  depart- 
ment, seeking  the  most  appropriate  title  of  modern  times 
for  labor.  Thus  when  physical  capital  appeals  to  the  em- 
ploying powers  for  some  consideration,  it  does  so  upon  a 
higher  plane  than  did  the  men  of  fifty  years  ago,  asserting 
that  physical  capital  and  fiscal  (money)  capital  are  on  equal 
levels,  and  that  if  it  is  fair  in  law  or  social  conduct  for  fis- 
cal capital  to  reduce  wages  (or  close  its  doors)  in  one  case, 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.     189 

it  is  equally  legitimate  for  physical  capital  to  demand  an 
increase  of  wages  (or  to  strike)  in  the  other  case.  But  no 
strike  occurs  without  some  attempts  at  simple  arbitration 
in  the  way  of  stating  a  grievance,  asking  for  what  is  de- 
sired, etc.  If,  after  being  listened  to,  the  prayer  of  the 
workers  is  refused,  a  strike,  where  one  occurs,  is  the  result 
of  cause  and  effect  on  the  part  of  both  fiscal  and  physical 
capital  rather  than  a  '  necessary  feature  of  the  wage  sys- 
tem.' Nothing  evil  or  inhuman  is  a  necessity,  yet  both 
the  strike  and  the  lock-out  are  evils  in  their  very  existence. 
"  2.  Arbitration  is  good  only  according  to  the  intelli- 
gence of  those  seeking  redress  through  its  employment. 
Thus,  with  arbitration  the  engineers  of  the  New  York  City 
elevated  railroads  managed  to  overcome  a  great  difficulty, 
because  the  intelligence  of  the  directing  head  grasped  the 
trouble  in  an  intelligent  manner,  using  reasonable  argu- 
ments with  (at  that  time)  a  reasonable  employing  power, 
which  at  first  was  inclined  to  be  overmasterful.  Now,  take 
the  case  of  the  strike  in  the  coke  regions  for  analytical  re- 
search. What  do  we  find?  A  foreign  element  of  low  in- 
telligence; an  element,  too,  employed  more  for  reason  of 
alleged  cheapness  than  anything  else.  But  that  low  intel- 
ligence (the  Hungarian)  had  made  known  its  wants  before 
striking.  Those  needs  had  been  refused — a  strike,  involv- 
ing the  destruction  of  property,  loss  of  life,  etc.,  ensued. 
It  is  thus  made  manifest  that  at  the  present  date  arbitra- 
tion is  not  the  '  missing  link '  for  yoking  the  two  dispu- 
tants in  harmonious  activity.  Therefore  arbitration  can 
only  be  effective  for  lasting  good  where  it  inheres  to  the 
benefit  of  both  parties  to  a  question,  aiming  to  settle  (rath- 
er than  making  shift  with  a  compromise)  the  dispute  in 
force  according  to  higher  degrees  of  intelligence  on  the 
part  of  physical  capital  and  the  enlarged  liberal  sympathies 
animating  physical  capital. 


190  THE    LABOR    PKOBLEM. 

"Question  No.  3  involves  an  immense  breadth  of  thoni^lit. 
As  the  intelH<fencc  of  men  increases  in  mental  strength, 
constantly  striving  to  reach  higher  levels  in  the  world's 
common  intellectual  progress,  and  so  elevates  the  mental 
capacity  of  the  workers,  the  hope  of  discovering  something 
more  substantial  than  is  at  present  known  for  a  more  equi- 
table division  of  profits,  resulting  from  the  combined  efforts 
of  physical  capital  and  the  employed  or  invested  money  of 
fiscal  capital,  may  be  ultimately  realizedT  But,  for  the  pres- 
ent moment,  we  seem  to  see  no  new  discovery  in  sight. 
And  why  ?  Because  the  results  of  labor  arc  not  always  the 
same.  Also,  the  results  of  keeping  capital  in  constant  ac- 
tivity is  not  always  the  same  either;  hence  profit  and  loss. 
Where  there  is  fluctuation  there  is  no  intrinsic  value. 
AVhere  the  products  of  labor  are  subject  to  conditions  of 
constant  changes,  created  only  by  the  calls  of  demand  upon 
the  capacity  to  supply,  everything  is  liable  to  be  more  un- 
equal than  equal  every  year.  Tliis  being  so,  though  divis- 
ion of  profits  may  be  adopted  by  one  or  more  experiment- 
alists with  good  I'esults,  it  is  impossible  to  legislate  for  its 
adoption  as  a  general  rule  for  a  given  nation,  because  det- 
rimental to  individual  enterprise  in  that  it  is  an  old  feudal 
idea  dressed  up  in  a  new  form.  But  this  should  not  pre- 
vent us  from  making  new  discoveries  for  the  benefit  of 
both  parties,  if  earnestly  searching  for  or  trying  to  origi- 
nate the  same. 

"  Interrogation  5  is  practicable  in  any  part  of  the  world 
where  civilization  sits  enthroned.  We  have  seen  it  in  Chi- 
na, in  Australia,  in  Cape  Town  (Africa),  and  most  of  you 
know  that  it  has  produced  good  fruit  in  France  as  well. 
But  everything  depends  upon  the  honesty  of  managers  and 
the  ability  of  the  heads  of  each  management  in  co-opera- 
tive organizations  of  every  kind.  It  requires  so  much  sys- 
tem and  ready  knowledge  as  working  capital  to  carry  such 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    I'Jl 

undertakings  forward  to  remunerative  pecuniary  results. 
A  partial  remedy  would  be  found  in  either  4  or  5,  if  one 
fraction  of  the  profits  could  find  its  way  to  the  pockets  of 
the  wage-workers  once  a  year  without  making  deductions 
from  the  weekly  or  monthly  wage.  But  it  would  seem  to 
rae,  on  the  whole,  that  all  of  us  have  yet  much  to  learn  in 
solving  the  great  problem  before  us,  and  that  it  will  require 
a  whole  generation  to  make  the  necessary  reforms,  aided 
alike  by  wise  legislation  and  individual  thought." 

J.  R.  Stewart,  Esq.,  oftlie  ^'■Illinois  State  Journal,^'  Spnng- 
jield.  III. 

"  Let  it  be  granted — as  no  doubt  it  ought  to  be — that, 
until  a  more  excellent  way  is  found,  arbitration  is  the  miss- 
ing link  between  Labor  and  Capital.  What,  then,  is  to 
follow  ?  What  shall  Labor  provide  for  itself  as  an  im- 
proved substitute  for  arbitration  ?  Arbitration  presup- 
poses conflict  of  interests,  and  that  a  tendency  to  the 
elimination  of  this  conflict  must  be  perpetually  main- 
tained must  be  self-evident,  if  the  case  is  ever  to  be  made 
better.  The  number  of  laborers  of  average  grade  will 
continue  to  increase,  doubtless,  in  greater  proportion  than 
the  demand  for  their  products.  Consequently,  we  must 
begin  to  inquire  where  or  when  we  are  to  reach  the  ulti- 
mate solution.  We  cannot  go  on  forever  arbitrating  differ- 
ences. Let  us  admit  that  arbitrary  discharges  of  employes, 
sudden  reductions  of  wages,  lock-outs,  and  all  the  ordinary 
com[)laints  of  labor,  are  hard  to  bear,  that  they  are  often 
unjust,  cruel,  and  frequently  unnecessary.  Such  an  ad- 
mission advances  us  very  little  towards  a  solution  of  the 
problem.  While  we  arc  employing  arbitration  we  must 
be  providing  a  way  which  will  lead  to  harmony.  I  believe 
that,  even  to  jnake  arbitration  apijroximately  satisfactory,  a 
very  high  sense  of  justice  is  necessary  on  the  part  of  both 


192  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM, 

parties  to  tlie  dispute.  Still,  it  has  its  advantaf^es.  It  is 
better  for  both  sides  tlian  the  strike.  In  these  matters,  as 
in  disputes  about  property,  a  lean  settlement  is  better  than 
a  fat  lawsuit.  Then,  to  my  mind,  it  settles  down  to  this, 
that  the  wage-worker  must  content  himself  to  go  ahead 
with  such  pay  as  he  can  get  by  this  amicable  method,  and 
in  the  mean  time  bend  all  the  energies  of  his  nature  to 
make  himself  a  more  useful  man,  and  to  equip  himself 
with  the  means  for  greater  self-help.  lie  must  practise  a 
rigid  economy.  He  must,  once  and  forever,  abandon  ex- 
pensive habits.  He  must  save  his  earnings,  and,  at  all  haz- 
ards, la}-  away  at  least  a  trifle  for  a  rainy  day.  With  such 
a  frugality  assiduously  practised  as  a  habit  of  life,  he  may, 
even  with  personal  advantage,  relinquish  a  portion  of  liis 
wages  when  hard  times  pinch  his  employer.  The  ability 
to  do  this  is  a  new  element  of  usefulness  and  strength. 
He  must  feel  himself  morally  bound  to  seize  all  the  un- 
numbered means  of  increasing  his  efficiency  as  a  worker, 
so  that  when  he  has  a  demand  to  make  or  a  favor  to  ask 
of  his  employer,  he  can  truthfully  say  that  no  man  can  do 
the  work  assigned  to  him  better  than  he  can,  or  can  do 
more  of  it.  1  think  I  may  safely  assert,  after  an  experi- 
ence of  twenty  years  among  wage -workers  —  and  being 
myself  a  wage-worker — that  the  inefficiency  of  men,  their 
tendency  (if  I  may  use  that  word)  to  unreliability,  if  not 
their  actual  unreliability,  is  the  one  prominent  fact  and 
greatest  weakness  among  them.  This  is  not  true  of  any 
one  class  of  men  ;  it  is  everywhere,  and  ranges  along  the 
scale  from  actual  botchery  and  slovenliness  up  to  a  point 
which  just  fall's  short  of  a  high  degree  of  excellence.  Given 
a  force  of  men  in  any  single  industrial  avocation  who  can 
perform  their  duties  better  than  anybody  else,  and  their 
employment  would  be  so  secure  that  not  even  the  income 
of  the  capitalist  would  be  half  so  certain.     I  do  not  expect 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION.    193 

that  men  who  have  reached  middle  life  without  having 
fully  apprehended  the  possibilities  even  of  what  seem  to 
them  untoward  circumstances,  and  who  may  liavc  become 
hampered  in  the  race,  can  quite  surmount  all  their  diffi- 
culties ;  but  that  they  can  better  thera  there  is  no  doubt. 
Certain  it  is,  however,  that  if  the  workman's  lofty  ideal, 
here  only  vaguely  hinted  at,  became  a  purpose  as  settled 
as  the  endeavor  to  better  their  condition  by  the  crude 
methods  now  in  vogue,  a  generation  hence  would  see  so 
many  wage -workers  emerge  into  the  realm  of  indepen- 
dence, and  so  many  more  added  to  the  list  of  indispensiible 
supports  to  their  employers,  that  the  jostle  and  friction 
among  the  remainder  would  be  practically  reduced  to  a 
minimum.  I  may  be  told  that  this  is  merely  utopianism. 
But  it  is  not.  In  all  the  higher  grades  of  work  employers 
everywhere  are  to-day  leaning  upon  the  faithfulness  of  the 
few  whose  superior  acquirements  render  their  services  in- 
dispensable. There  is  always  room  in  the  upper  story; 
but,  starting  from  the  level  of  an  ordinary  wage-worker, 
no  man  can  mount  up  by  empty  wishing.  There  is  no 
excellence  without  great  labor.  Perpetual  diligence,  hab- 
its of  thoughtfulness,  study,  accuracy,  dexterity,  manliness, 
good  health  are  all  requisites;  but,  thanks  to  kind  nature, 
they  are  all  cheap,  and  not  even  a  grasping  corporation 
can  get  a  monopoly  of  any  of  them.  Not  all  the  wealth 
of  the  mines  can  buy  good  health,  the  primary  capital  of 
the  wage-worker. 

"  Glancing  at  the  newspaper  business,  for  example — the 
one  with  which  I  am  most  familiar — probably  the  most 
exacting  of  occupations,  and  the  one  furnishing  the  least 
leisure — it  appears  to  be  an  almost  universal  law  tliat  the 
men  who  rise  from  the  lower  grades  and  become  as  neces- 
sary as  the  engine  or  the  press,  or  any  other  sine  qua  non 
which  I  f'duM   name,  are  cmpliatically  tin;  men   who  hus- 


ll)i  TllK    LABOR    PnOBLEM. 

band  their  time  and  their  means,  and  equip  tliemselvcs  so 
that  they  can  not  only  set  type  as  well  as  the  best  of  tlicir 
coworkers,  but  can  make  up  the  paper,  lay  out  the  plans 
for  the  best  disposition  of  tlie  matter,  report  a  meeting, 
write  acceptably  on  any  ordinary  topic — in  a  word,  can  do 
well  anything  the  business  requires.  I  assert  that  Nature 
has  endowed  all  men  of  fairly  good  parts  with  the  ability 
to  do  all  this;  but  most  certainly  it  cannot  be  done  by 
any  one,  unless  he  have  the  most  exceptional  endowments, 
who  will  squander  ten  per  cent,  of  his  time  and  his  work- 
ing power  in  brooding  over  his  own  hard  lot,  ten  per  cent, 
in  lying  off  for  rest  and  recuperation  from  labor,  and  ten 
per  cent,  more  in  vices,  luxuries,  and  excesses,  not  one  of 
which  he  is  justly  able  to  support.  He  must  deal  with 
himself  with  a  stoical  rigidity  until  he  has  planted  his  feet 
upon  ground  so  solid  that  he  can  stand  easily  by  his  own 
personal  support.  Then,  and  not  sooner,  can  he  afford  to 
relax.  Such  a  heroic  laborer  has  no  time  to  quarrel  with 
bis  employer,  and  it  would  be  suicidal  for  the  employer  to 
quarrel  with  him  and  his  class.  All  such  wage-workers 
must  succeed.  All  the  laws  of  nature  and  trade  combine 
to  help  them  forward,  and  as  they  multiply  the  elbow-room 
for  the  others  increases.  It  is,  to  my  mind,  such  a  plain 
work- day  philosophy  as  this  which  must  help  the  wage- 
worker  out  of  his  troubles,  and  until  he  learns  this  philos- 
ophy I  have  no  faith  that  any  laws  of  human  construction 
can  materially  lighten  his  burdens,  which,  I  most  profound- 
ly know,  are  heavy  and  grievous  to  be  borne.  Legislation 
can  help  him,  but  I  think  it  will  be  found,  for  the  most 
part,  to  help  him  chiefly  by  giving  him  more  opportunity 
and  courage  to  work  out  for  himself  the  practical  doctrine 
which  I  have  so  lamely  outlined  in  this  article." 


SEVERAL    rilASES    OF    THE    LABOR    QUESTION.  195 

n.  D.  Lloyd,  Esq.,  of  the  '■'Chicago  Tribune." 

*'  The  laborers  arc  justly  dissatisfied  with  their  share  of 
the  products  of  their  labor.  Their  remedy  seems  to  me  to 
lie  in  self-help  through  combination  —  combinations  to 
make  better  contracts  with  their  employers,  combinations 
like  the  supply  stores  of  England,  to  buy  their  goods  in 
quantity  at  wholesale  prices,  combinations  to  enable  work- 
ing-men to  engage  in  productive  enterprises  on  their  own 
account,  as  their  own  capitalists  and  employers,  and,  lastly, 
combinations  to  procure  for  their  defence  and  advancement 
all  that  can  be  had  from  the  Legislature,  which  hitherto 
has  done  so  much  at  the  expense  of  Labor  for  other  classes, 
in  land-grants,  charters,  exemptions  from  taxation,  and  the 
like.  \\\  all  this  work  it  is  abundantly  evident  that  the 
working-men  l)ave  the  sympathy  of  the  thinkers  of  the  world 
and  of  all  the  lovers  of  mankind.  Hence,  the  issue  is  not 
doubtful.  In  our  enlightened  age  this  growth  upward 
should  be  accomplished  without  social  discord,  like  that 
which  made  the  enfranchisement  of  the  craftsmen  of  the 
Middle  Ages  the  prize  of  blood  and  iron  ;  but  if  revolution 
does  come  it  will  be,  like  the  French  Revolution,  simply  a 
violent  episode  in  the  emancipation  of  the  people." 

F.  II.  GiDDiNGs,  Esq.,  of  the  '■' Sprimjfidd  (Mass.)  Unions 

"  Strikes  and  lock-outs  are  an  inevitable  consequence  of 
the  wage  system  under  existing  economic  conditions,  be- 
cause the  wage  sy.stem  has  ceased,  apparently,  and  perhaps 
actually,  to  be  a  just  arrangement.  There  is  such  a  thing 
as  a  measure  of  just  wages,  though  this  is  often  denied  by 
economists  of  the  llicardian  school.  Wages  arc  just  when 
they  are  an  equivalent  of  the  wealth  that  the  worker  creati  .»<. 
Such  ct|uivalcncc  is  necessarily  establi.>5lM'd  when  the  work- 
er has  an  alti  iiialive  opportunity  of  working  for  himself. 


196  THE    LAUOR,   PROBLEM, 

Seventy  years  ago  wages  \Yere  lower  than  they  arc  now, 
but  they  were  approximately  just.  Land  was  cheap ;  its 
product  was  large  in  proportion  to  Capital  and  Labor  spent 
on  it;  manufactures  and  trade  were  conducted  in  small 
shops,  and  the  worker  that  was  dissatisfied  with  the  wages 
offered  by  an  employer  could  readily  ascertain  whether  or 
not  his  work  was  worth  more  by  becoming  his  own  em- 
ployer. This  alternative  has  been  rapidly  disappearing,  and 
for  the  majority,  or  wage-workers,  will  soon  be  quite  gone. 
There  is  still  cheap  land  at  the  West,  but  to  get  to  it  and 
secure  a  first  year's  crop  requires  considerable  capital,  and 
year  by  year  the  capital  necessary  to  set  up  as  a  farmer  or 
as  an  independent  producer  in  any  department  of  industry 
will  increase.  An  increasing  proportion  of  wage-workers, 
therefore,  becomes,  year  by  year,  absolutely  dependent  on 
employers,  and  there  is  no  longer  any  assurance  that  wages 
are  an  equivalent  of  work  performed. 

"  That  they  are  not,  the  worker  concludes  because  he  sees 
that,  notwithstanding  the  marvellous  increase  of  the  produc- 
tive power  of  combined  labor  and  capital,  he  is  thus  be- 
coming yearly  more  dependent.*    It  is  not  true  that  wage- 

*  "  It  13  not  necessary  to  show  that  all  the  effects  of  the  introduc- 
tion of  power  machinery  liave  been  to  raise  the  standard  of  life  wher- 
ever the  introduction  has  taken  place.  It  is  true  that  in  those  coun- 
tries where  machinery  has  been  developed  to  the  highest,  the  greatest 
number  of  work-people  are  engaged,  and  that  in  those  countries  where 
machinery  has  been  developed  to  little  or  no  purpose,  poverty  reigns, 
ignorance  is  the  prevailing  condition,  and  civilization,  consequently, 
far  in  the  rear.  Yet,  if  the  question  should  be  asked,  has  the  wage- 
worker  received  his  equitable  share  of  the  benefits  derived  from  the 
introduction  of  machinery,  the  answer  must  be  no.  In  the  struggle 
for  industrial  supremacy  in  the  great  countries  devoted  to  mechanical 
productions,  it  probably  has  been  impossible  for  him  to  share  equita- 
bly in  such  benefits.  His  greatest  benefit  has  come  through  his  being 
a  consumer.    In  vcrv  nianv  instances  the  adult  male  has  been  obliged 


SEVERAL    PHASES    OF   THE    LABOR    QIESTION.  197 

earners  arc  growino;  poorer  wliilc  the  rich  grow  richer,  but 
it  is  true  that  the  possessors  of  capital  are  growing  richer 
so  much  faster  than  the  wage-earners  that  the  gulf  between 
them  is  widening.  In  1850  wages  in  the  United  States 
averaged  8247.11  a  year,  in  all  industries.  In  1880  the 
average  was  834G.91,  a  very  gratifying  increase.  But  the 
percentage  of  net  product  paid  in  wages  was  51  in  1850 
and  only  48.1  in  1880.  Fixed  capital,  rent,  salaries,  and 
commissions  have  largely  increased,  and  through  these  va- 
rious channels  a  larger  percentage  of  net  product  goes  to 
the  employing  capitalist. 

"  To  find  a  more  equitable  arrangement  becomes  impera- 
tive, and  it  must  be  sought  in  the  various  forms  of  profit- 
sharing.*  Arbitration  involves  one  of  these.  It  subjects 
tlie  bargain  between  employer  and  employes  to  revision, 
from  time  to  time,  with  direct  reference  to  the  question  of 
what  the  employer  can  afford  to  \)nj,  his  profits  being  such 
or  such.  Co-operative  production  is  another  form  of  profit- 
sharing,  and  '  industrial  partnership  '  a  third. 

"  Co-operative  production  is  practicable  under  certain 
well-defined  conditions.  A  majority  of  the  men  must  be 
a  picked  lot,  of  good  intelligence,  willing  to  defer  to  each 
other,  of  quick  business  sense,  and  willing  to  intrust  large 
powers  of  management  to  their  directors,  under  responsi- 
bility. They  must  have  command  of  ample  capital,  a  fact 
which  at  present  limits  their  enterprises  to  comparatively 

to  work  at  n  reduced  waf^e  because  under  improved  machinery  wom- 
en and  cliildrcn  could  perform  his  work,  but  tlie  net  carninj^s  of  his 
family  stand  at  a  higher  figure  tiian  of  old.  It  in  also  true  that  while 
labor  has  been  displaced  afiparently  in  many  directions  and  in  many 
industries,  machinery  has  brought  new  occupations,  especially  to 
women." — Cakholl  D.  Wkkjht. 

*  For  Mr.  Giddings's  opinion  on  this  question,  see  chapter  on 
"  Profit-sharing." 


198  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

small  undertakings.  The  lack  of  sufficient  capital  has 
caused  groat  mortality  among  co-operative  experiments. 
The  labor  relation  must  be  subordinated  to  the  stockholder 
relation,  and  while  profits  go  ultimately  to  the  members  in 
their  double  capacity  of  stockholders  and  workers,  labor 
must  be  paid  for,  as  such,  regularly,  at  stated  intervals. 
Each  individual  member,  while  in  one  capacity  he  helps  to 
manage  the  affairs  of  the  company,  must  in  another  capac- 
ity regard  it  as  his  employer  and  obey  its  orders. 

"Those  who  are  at  all  familiar  with  the  literature  of  co-op- 
eration musthaye  read  with  great  interest  and  profit  a  little 
novel  by  Edward  Everett  Hale,  entitled  '  Back  to  Back.'  The 
plan  of  this  book,  as  we  learn  from  Mr.  Hale,  was  suggested 
by  Mr.  Weeden,  one  of  the  most  successful  of  Eastern  man- 
ufacturers. Indeed,  the  tables  and  practical  proposals  in  it 
are  in  his  words  and  from  his  pen.  Mr.  Hale  in  a  letter 
says :  '  The  plan^^seemed  so  feasible  that  I  had  three  woollen- 
mills  offered  me  by  manufacturers  in  different  parts  of  the 
country  if  I  were  willing  to  carry  them  on  on  this  principle. 
This  I  could  not  do,  for  I  know  little  more  than  the  differ- 
ence between  felt  and  broadcloth.  Mr.  George  Holyoakc 
reprinted  the  story  in  England,  saying  that  it  precisely  met 
his  theory  of  co  -  operation.  I  have  never  thought  that 
Vandeleur's  success  in  co-operative  agriculture  had  attract- 
ed the  attention  it  deserved.  I  published  an  account  of  it 
in  "Old  and  New"  in  1871.  I  believe  that  a  general  un- 
derstanding that  eight  hours  is  the  average  normal  period 
of  daily  work  would  be  an  advantage.  Of  course  sailors, 
farmers,  doctors,  lawyers,  law -makers,  and  every  sort  of 
workmen,  would  often  have  to  step  over  the  line.  But  I 
could  wish  it  were  understood  that  this  is  the  average.  If 
it  were  so  understood,  and  I  directed  a  great  manufactory, 
I  Avould  employ  two  sets  of  help,  and  would  run  my  estab- 
lishment from  four  every  morning  till  eight  every  evening. 


SEVERAL  PHASES  OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTIOX.    199 

I  think  the  first  manufacturer  who  does  this  on  a  generous 
scale  will  get  the  best  workmen,  will  do  the  most  work, 
and  will  make  the  most  profit.  ...  I  wisli  that  gentlemen 
in  your  position  would  do  what  you  can  to  put  an  end  to 
the  rigmarole  about  the  "  dignity  of  labor."  It  is  work 
which  is  dignified;  labor  never  is.  And  the  business  of  a 
journal  like  yours  is  to  elevate  laborers  into  workmen.  The 
distinction  between  work  and  labor  is  marked,  I  think,  in 
all  careful  English  writers  till  within  the  last  fifty  years, 
especially  and  notably  in  the  New  Testament.'  " 


CHAPTER  IX. 

A  PLEA  FOR  PROFIT-SHARING. 

"Beyond  all  dreams  of  the  Golden  Age  will  be  the  spleudor,  raaj- 
esty,  and  happiness  of  the  free  peoples  when,  fulfilling  the  promise 
of  the  ages  and  the  hopes  of  humanity,  they  shall  have  learned  how 
to  make  equitable  distribution  among  themselves  of  the  fruits  of  their 
common  labor." — IIoN.  Abram  Uewitt. 

A  STATE  of  war,  or  at  least  an  armed  truce,  is  the  con- 
dition under  which  industry  has  been  pursued  throughout 
the  greater  part  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  The  an- 
tagonism of  Capital  and  Labor  during  this  period  has  man- 
ifested itself  in  frequent  strikes  and  lock  -  outs,  attended 
with  violence,  outrage,  and  coercion,  followed  by  irretrieva- 
ble loss  and  inconceivable  misery.  The  injury  inflicted  not 
only  on  the  parties  to  the  contest  but  on  the  community  in 
general  by  strikes  and  lock-outs  cannot  be  measured  by 
the  loss  which  they  cause,  considerable  though  that  loss 
undoubtedly  is.  The  suffering  and  misery  they  create 
must  be  reckoned  in  the  account  against  them.  The  pov- 
erty, pauperism,  and  degradation  of  thousands  of  families 
are  among  the  baneful  consequences  of  these  cruel  and 
often  prolonged  contests,  and  among  their  victims  are  to 
be  found  the  members  of  industrial  firms  in  startling  num- 
bers. But  the  direct  money  loss  for  which  these  conflicts 
are  responsible  is  enormous. 

It  has  been  shown  by  a  very  careful  statistician,  Mr. 
Charles  Waring,  that  in  the  period  from  1870  to  1879,  in- 


A    PLEA    FOR    PROFIT-SHARING.  201 

elusive,  2352  strikes  occurred  in  England,  and  that  the  cost 
to  the  workmen  in  the  decade  was  $134,064,000,  or  an 
average  yearly  loss  of  813,406,400.  The  capitalist's  or 
employer's  amount  of  loss  in  consequence  of  strikes  and 
lock-outs  during  the  same  period  is  estimated  at  820,947,- 
500,  an  average  of  82,094,750  per  annum.  The  two  sums 
to  the  debt  of  Labor  and  Capital  consequently  amount  to 
the  total  of  $155,011,500  for  the  decade,  or  at  the  rate  of 
$15,501,150  per  annum.  The  extent  and  importance  of 
the  moral  and  material  damage  done  by  industrial  warfare 
during  the  last  twenty-five  years  in  all  parts  of  the  indus- 
trial world  is  almost  beyond  computation.  That  it  is  both 
costly  and  demoralizing  is  universally  conceded.  It  is 
equally  beyond  dispute  that,  so  long  as  the  interests  of 
the  employer  and  employed  diverge,  antagonism  and  hos- 
tility will  characterize  the  pursuit  of  industry,  and  the  com- 
plete and  most  profitable  development  of  industrial  enter- 
prise will  be  delayed.  It  is  obviously,  therefore,  to  the 
advantage  of  all  that  some  means  should  be  found  and 
adopted  to  make  those  interests  identical  by  the  substitu- 
tion of  some  form  of  equitable  diversions  of  the  fruits  of 
labor.  To  this  end  productive  co-operation  has  been  sug- 
gested and  tried.  The  theory  of  association  of  workmen 
for  production  has  among  its  advocates  many  of  the  most 
eminent  political  economists  and  philanthropists  of  this 
generation  —  Thomas  Hughes,  Professor  T.  Rogers,  Pro- 
fessor Cairnes,  John  Stuart  Mill,  Lord  Derby,  Mr.  Thomas 
Brassey,  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  and  others  equally  well 
known.  And  yet  the  scheme  of  productive  co-operation 
proposed  so  long  ago,  sanctioned  by  the  highest  authority, 
appealing  directly  to  the  self-interest  of  the  laboring  class- 
es, has  not  been  successful  on  a  large  scale.  The  history 
of  co-operative  production  alike  in  France,  in  England,  and 
in  the  United  States  has  been  one  of  the  most  discourng- 


202  THE    LAnOH    PROBLEM. 

ing,  if  not  of  the  most  disastrous  character.*  The  advan- 
tages are  great,  the  difficulties  enormous. 

In  the  fact  that  comparatively  few  of  our  working-men 
have  the  intelligence  and  sagacity  requisite  to  organize  and 
manage  a  large  business,  will  be  found  a  pretty  clear  ex- 
planation of  the  reasons  why  co-operation  of  this  kind  has 
not  been  more  generally  introduced.  However  individual- 
ly skilful  and  industrious,  thrifty  and  energetic  the  men 
may  be,  they  lack  besides  capital  the  necessary  business 
experience,  training,  and  commercial  knowledge  to  enable 
them  to  compete  successfully  with  private  enterprise  com- 
bining capital  and  paid  labor.f 

It  is  scarcely  reasonable  to  expect  men  without  educa- 
tion, training,  and  discipline  to  manage  large  or  even  mod- 


*  In  the  "Co-operative  Annual  "for  1883  there  is  a  record,  on 
page  168,  of  224  failures. 

■)■  "  I  see  nothing  which  indicates  that  within  any  near  future  indus- 
try is  to  become  less  despotic  than  it  now  is.  The  power  of  the  mas- 
ter in  production,  the  captain  of  industry,  has  steadily  increased 
through  the  present  century  with  the  increasing  complexity  of  com- 
mercial relations,  with  the  great  concentration  of  capital,  with  im- 
provements in  apparatus  and  machinery,  with  the  multiplication  of 
styles  and  fashions,  with  the  localization  and  specialization  of  manu- 
factures."— Professor  F.  A.  Walker. 

"  It  is  indeed  greatly  to  be  doubted  whether  any  body  of  working- 
men  in  the  world  could  to-day  organize  and  successfully  carry  on  a 
mining  or  manufacturing  or  commercial  business  in  competition  with 
concerns  owned  by  men  trained  to  affairs.  If  any  such  co-operative 
organization  succeeds,  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  it  is  princi- 
pally owing  to  the  exceptional  business  ability  of  one  of  the  man- 
agers, and  only  in  a  very  small  degree  to  the  efforts  of  the  mass  of 
workmen  owners.  This  business  ability  is  excessively  rare,  as  is 
proved  by  the  incredibly  large  proportion  of  those  who  enter  upon 
the  stormy  sea  of  business  only  to  fail.  I  should  say  that  twenty 
co-operative  concerns  would  fail  to  every  one  that  would  succeed." — 
Andrew  Carnegie. 


A    PLEA    FOR    PUOFIT-SUARIXG.  203 

erate  business  enterprises.  Educate  tlie  worker,  furnish 
hiiu  the  opportunities  for  training-  and  discipline,  and  pro- 
ductive co-operation  will  be  a  success.  By  what  means, 
then,  is  the  wage-earner  to  get  this  training,  discipline,  and 
education?  We  believe  that  it  must  come  through  profit- 
sharing  based  upon  copartnership.  Constant  war  between 
employer  and  employe  has  brought  great  loss  to  both. 
Such  war  can  be,  and  ought  to  be,  superseded  by  their  be- 
coming partners,  so  that  both  shall  have  an  interest  in  the 
business  in  hand.  The  idea  of  industrial  partnersliips  for 
the  purpose  of  enabling  workmen  to  participate  in  the 
profits  of  their  labor  is  not  by  any  means  new.  In  many 
insignificant  and  obscure  industries  which  the  reader  may 
find  more  particularly  described  or  enumerated  in  the  writ- 
ings of  Messrs.  J.  S.  Mill  and  W.  T,  Thornton,  the  idea  has 
long  been  carried  into  effect,  in  the  mines  of  Cornwall  and 
Cumberland,  in  the  American  whale-sliips,  in  the  mercan- 
tile navy  of  Greece,  and  in  the  trade  in  manufactured 
goods  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  From  these  examples,  as 
early  as  1832,  Mr.  Babbage,  the  mathematician,  in  his  very 
suggestive  little  book,  "  The  Economy  of  Machinery  and 
Manufactures,"  whicli  anticipated  more  than  one  of  the 
po[)uIar  notions  of  later  days,  drew  with  great  clearness 
and  precision  the  principles  of  the  scheme  of  "Industrial 
Partnerships,"  which  liave  since  been  practically  carried 
out  both  in  England  and  France. 

It  is  now  about  forty  years  since  the  distinguislied  French- 
man, M.  Leclaire,  first  put  into  practice  on  any  considera- 
ble scale  the  principle  of  participation  by  workmen  in  the 
profits  of  enterprise.  As  a  condition  of  understanding  the 
present  working  of  Lcclaire's  institution,  it  is  necessary  to 
refer  to  those  facts  in  his  life  which  bear  most  <lirectly  on 
the  development  of  participation.  Edme-Jcan  Leclaire  was 
born   on  May   14,  1801,  in    a  little  village  in  the  central 


204  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

part  of  France.  Tlie  son  of  a  poor  shoemaker,  he  was  re- 
moved from  school  at  ten  years  old,  with  the  scantiest 
knowledge  even  of  reading  and  writing,  and  put  to  work, 
first  in  the  fields,  atnd  next  as  a  mason's  apprentice.  At 
seventeen,  having  arrived  penniless  and  unfriended  at  Paris, 
he  apprenticed  himself  to  a  house-painter.  In  three  years 
he  became  a  journeyman,  and  after  seven  more  set  up  in 
business  on  his  own  account.  In  1834  he  was  called  upon 
to  execute  important  works,  and  his  success  was  definitely 
assured.  No  sooner  was  his  own  position  as  an  industrial 
chief  assured,  than,  with  rare  width  and  generosity  of  view, 
he  threw  himself  into  plans  and  efforts  for  raising  the  con- 
dition of  his  own  workmen,  and  ultimately  of  the  wage- 
earning  class  in  general.  The  first  impulse  in  the  direction 
which  his  plan  ultimately  took  came  from  a  M.  Fregier, 
who,  in  1835,  told  Leclaire  that  he  saw  no  way  to  get  rid 
of  the  antagonism  which  existed  between  the  workman  and 
master  except  the  participation  of  the  workman  in  the 
profits  of  the  master.  In  1842  Leclaire  announced  his  in- 
tention of  dividing  among  a  certain  number  of  his  em- 
ployes a  part  of  the  profits  produced  by  the  work  done. 
A  part  of  the  workmen  saw  in  this  nothing  but  a  deeply- 
laid  plan  for  reducing  wages.  When,  however,  Leclaire, 
after  collecting  his  participants,  forty-four  in  number,  threw 
upon  the  table  a  bag  of  gold  containing  $2375,  and  then 
and  there  distributed  to  each  his  share,  averaging  over  $50 
per  man,  it  was  found  impossible  to  withstand  the  "  object 
lesson  "  thus  given.  All  hesitation  vanished,  and  was  re- 
placed by  unbounded  confidence.  On  the  profits  of  suc- 
ceeding years  larger  sums  were  divided  among  increasing 
numbers  of  participants.  Thus,  during  the  six  years  from 
1842  to  1847,  inclusive,  an  average  of  $3750  was  annually 
divided  among  an  average  of  eighty  persons.  The  share 
assigned  to  each  participant  was  proportional  to  the  sum 


A    PLEA    FOR    PROFIT-SHARING.  205 

he  had  earned  in  the  shape  of  wages  during  the  year  for 
which  the  assessment  was  made. 

Without  entering  into  all  the  details  of  Leclaire's  proj- 
ect, it  may  be  said  to  rest  on  two  institutions,  closely  con- 
nected but  separately  administered,  and  capable  of  inde- 
pendent action — the  house,  or  business  undertaking  proper, 
and  the  Mutual  Aid  Society,  which  provides  the  workman 
and  his  wife  with  the  wherewithal  to  live  in  peace,  without 
being  a  burden  to  any  one,  after  regular  conduct  and  assid- 
uous labor.  In  1869  he  impressed  a  character  of  perpetu- 
ity on  the  house  by  making  a  formal  deed  which  enactc<l 
that  henceforth  the  net  profits  of  the  business  should  be 
divided  in  certain  fixed  proportions  between  the  managing 
partners,  the  Mutual  Aid  Society,  and  the  workmen  form- 
ing the  regular  staff  of  the  house.  Tliis  decisive  act  of  in- 
corporation was  preceded  by  an  elaborate  inquiry,  in  which 
every  member  of  the  establishment  Avas  invited  to  take 
part.  Leclaire  lived  to  see  his  institution  pass  unscathed 
through  the  ordeals  of  the  siege  of  Paris  and  of  the  revo- 
lutionary conflict  of  the  Commune,  lie  died  July  13, 
1872,  of  apoplexy,  in  his  seventy-second  year. 

The  present  capital  of  the  house  amounts  to  $80,000, 
one-half  of  wliich  is  the  property  of  the  two  managing 
partners,  while  the  other  half  is  held  by  the  Mutual  Aid 
Society  as  sleeping  partner.  There  is  also  a  reserve  fund 
of  820,000,  which  can  be  drawn  upon  in  case  of  an  emer- 
gency. The  annual  profits  made  by  the  house  are  distrib- 
uted as  follows  :  The  two  managing  partners  receive  $1200 
each  as  salaries  for  superintendence.  Interest  at  five  per 
cent,  is  paid  to  them  and  to  the  society  on  their  respective 
capitals.  Of  the  remaining  net  profit  one-quarter  goes  to 
the  managing  partners,  and  ono-quartcr  to  the  funds  of  the 
society  ;  the  remaining  half  is  divided  among  all  the  work- 
men and  others  employed  by  tlin  house,  in  sums  profDr- 


20G  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

tionate  to  the  amounts  which  they  have  respectively  car- 
ried in  wages,  paid  at  the  ordinary  market  rate  daring  the 
year  for  which  the  division  is  being  made.  Since  1871 
the  benefits  of  participation  have  extended  to  every  one 
who  worked  for  the  house  even  for  a  single  day.  The  fol- 
lowing table  shows  the  amounts  paid  in  wages  and  bonus- 
es to  labor  from  1870  to  1879 : 

„      ,    „.„  Total  of  bonuses 

Year.  Total  of  Wages-  ^^  ^^^^ 

1870 $80,285  $11,655 

1871 111,300  13,500 

1872 145,415  17,650 

1873 101,535  12,900 

1874 J20,060  15,600 

1875 138,310  20,000 

1876 139,715  22,509 

1877 149,100  23,000 

1878 142,730  26,000 

These  bonuses  range  from  twelve  per  cent,  to  eighteen 
per  cent,  on  amount  of  wages  earned.  They  average  for  the 
nine  years  fifteen  per  cent.,  a  very  substantial  addition  to 
income.  The  Mutual  Aid  Society,  besides  bestowing  a  re- 
tiring life  pension  of  $200  per  annum  on  every  member 
who  has  attained  the  age  of  fifty  years,  and  has  worked 
twenty  years  for  the  house,  further  insures  the  life  of  every 
member  for  $200,  to  be  handed  over  to  his  family  at  his 
death.  Conspicuous  as  are  these  material  advantages,  they 
are  far  from  constituting  the  whole  or  even  the  principal 
good  attached  to  Leclaire's  beneficent  institution.*  Its 
founder  recognized  in  the  principle  of  participation  not 
merely  a  means  of  improving  the  pecuniary  situation  of 
the  wage-earning  class,  but  also  a  powerful  lever  for  raising 


*  For  a  detailed  account  of  the  Maison  Leclaire  see  Mr.  Sedley 
Taylor'3  work  on  "Profit-sharing,"  from  which  these  facts  are  ob- 
tained. 


A    PLEA    FOR    PROFIT-SHARING.  207 

tbcir  moral  condition,  and  with  it,  of  course,  their  social 
status.  In  brief,  every  workman  is  taught  at  every  step 
lessons  in  self-control,  in  humanity,  in  impartial  conduct,  in 
judicial  integrity.  They  know  that  the  more  expeditious- 
ly the  work  is  despatched  the  greater  will  be  the  return  on 
labor  which  will  accrue  to  each  individual  workman.  Ac- 
cordingly, abandoning  the  system  of  organized  waste  of 
time  so  generally  practised,  they  work  with  self-sustained 
energy  during  the  hours  of  labor.  The  scamping  of  work 
and  the  introduction  of  inferior  or  defective  materials  are 
sternly  discountenanced  by  the  men  themselves,  because 
the  reputation  of  the  house  and  their  earnings  are  at  stake. 
They  know  that  the  wanton  destruction  of  tools  or  mate- 
rials is  merely  one  way  of  throwing  their  own  money  into 
the  sea.  The  whole  history  of  this  institution  shows  that 
the  introduction  of  participation  by  workmen  in  the  profits 
of  employers  admits  of  being  recommended  on  purely  eco- 
nomic grounds  as  a  benefit  to  both  the  parties  concerned. 
As  Professor  Fawcett  has  pointed  out,  the  fundamental  ad- 
vantage of  this  and  similar  schemes  arises  from  the  circum- 
stance that  the  benefit  they  confer  is  mutual ;  the  share 
of  profits  received  by  the  workman  is  a  measure  of  the 
gain  secured  by  the  employer  as  a  consequence  of  the  ad- 
ditional efficiency  given  to  Labor  and  Capital  by  intro- 
ducing harmony  where  before  there  was  antagonism  and 
rivalry  of  interest.  Not  only  is  the  loss  inflicted  on  in- 
dustry by  strikes  and  lock-outs  avoided,  but  a  vast  amount 
of  waste  is  obviated.  The  copartnership  does  not  require 
from  the  employer  any  sacrifice  on  behalf  of  his  workmen, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  both  arc  equally  benefited.  It  is 
an  error  to  suppose  that  the  share  of  jjrofits  allotted  to 
Labor  represents  so  much  abstracted  from  the  returns  of 
Capital. 

Another  example  that  may  be  iiicnlioned  is  the  case  of 


208  THE    LABOll    rUOBLEM. 

the  Paris  and  Orleans  Railway  Company,  which  distributes 
a  certain  portion  of  the  profits  realized  araonj^  the  working 
staff  of  the  railway,  and  it  is  unanimously  affirmed  by  the 
directors  that  the  plan  succeeds  admirably.  The  amount 
now  distributed  is  equivalent  to  about  ten  per  cent,  on 
wages,  the  wages  paid  being  the  same  as  on  other  French 
railways.  The  plan  has  been  in  continuous  operation  since 
1844,  and  the  whole  amount  received  by  the  employes  of 
the  company  between  that  year  and  1883  as  their  share  of 
profits  is  no  less  than  $12,000,000.  The  dividend  on 
wages,  the  sharing  of  profits,  has  always  had  the  effect  de- 
scribed in  these  instances — 'it  pays.  The  dividend  given 
to  the  worker  is  an  investment  designed  to  earn  industry, 
faithfulness,  honesty,  and  skill.  It  is  not  only  justice,  but 
profit.  It  wins  the  worker  to  the  side  of  the  capitalist  and 
consumer,  that  he  may  be  their  friend.  If  he  is  one  of 
them  he  works  for  their  advantage. 

It  is  estimated  that  there  are  now  over  one  hundred  and 
fifty  firms  in  Europe  working  on  the  participating  basis. 
Mr.  Sedley  Taylor  notes  its  introduction  with  good  results 
into  agriculture  ;  into  the  administration  of  railways,  banks, 
and  insurance  -  offices  ;  into  iron -smelting,  type-founding, 
and  cotton-spinning;  into  the  manufacture  of  tools,  paper, 
chemicals,  lucifer-matches,  soap,  card-board,  and  cigarette- 
papers;  into  printing,  engraving,  cabinet- making,  house- 
painting,  and  plumbing;  into  stock-broking,  book-selling, 
the  wine  trade,  and  haberdashery.  The  simplest  system 
adopted  is  that  which  distributes  the  work-people's  share 
in  the  profits  at  the  close  of  each  year's  account,  without 
making  any  conditions  as  to  the  disposal  of  the  sum  so 
paid  over.  This  mode  of  procedure  is  adopted  by  but  a 
very  limited  group  of  firms,  the  most  important  among 
which  is  the  piano-forte  making  establishment  of  M.  Bord, 
Rue  des  Poissonniers,  Paris.    Participation  was  introduced 


A    PLEA    FOR    PROFIT-SHARING.  209 

in  1865,  in  consequence  of  a  strike,  on  the  following  basis  : 
After  deduction  from  the  net  profits  of  interest  at  ten  per 
cent,  as  M.  Bord's  capital  embarked  in  the  business,  the 
remainder  is  divided  into  two  parts,  one  proportional  to 
the  amount  of  interest  on  capital  drawn  by  M.  Bord,  the 
other  to  the  whole  sum  paid  during  the  year  in  wages  to 
the  workmen.  The  former  of  these  two  parts  goes  to  M. 
Bord,  the  latter  is  divided  among  all  his  employds  who  can 
show  six  months'  continuous  presence  in  the  house  up  to 
the  day  of  the  annual  distribution.  The  share  obtained  by 
each  workman  is  proportional  to  the  sum  which  he  lias 
earned  in  wages,  paid  at  the  full  market  rate  during  the 
year  on  which  the  division  of  profits  is  made.  The  num- 
ber of  M.  Bord's  employes  was,  at  the  beginning  of  1878, 
a  little  over  four  hundred,  and  the  sums  lie  had  paid  in  la- 
bor dividends  during  three  years  are,  £3784,  £2874,  and 
£3548,  which  represent  fifteen  per  cent.,  twelve  per  cent., 
and  sixteen  per  cent,  respectively  on  the  men's  earnings  in 
wages  during  those  years.  The  total  amount  thus  paid 
exclusively  out  of  profits,  since  the  introduction  of  this 
system  in  1865,  is  £39,300.  A  diametrically  opposite  pro- 
cedure is  followed  by  many  other  houses  in  I'aris.  One 
of  the  largest  insurance  companies  has  allowed  for  thirty 
years  past  five  per  cent,  on  the  yearly  profits  realized  to 
its  staff,  which  numbers  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  em- 
ployes. No  part  of  this  share  in  profits  is  handod  over  in 
annual  dividends.  Each  successive  payment  is  capitalized, 
and  accumulates  at  four  per  cent,  compound  interest  until 
the  beneficiary  has  completed  twenty-five  years  of  work  in 
the  house,  or  is  sixty-five  years  of  age.  At  the  expiration 
of  this  period  he  is  at  liberty  cither  to  sink  the  value  of 
his  account  in  the  purchase  of  a  life  annuity  in  the  oflice, 
or  to  invest  it  in  French  govcrntnont  or  railway  securities. 
M.  De  Courcy,  managing  director  of  this  company,  is  well 

11 


210  THE    LABOll    I'RODLEM. 

known  as  an  ardent  and  eloquent  advocate  of  this  system. 
From  the  company's  stand-point  of  view  he  alleges  the  in- 
creased permanence,  steadiness,  and  assiduity  which  the 
deposit  account  has  produced  in  its  staff  of  employes,  and 
instances  in  particular  the  redoubled  efforts  which  they  will- 
ingly make  at  the  seasons  of  heavy  pressure  in  business. 
*'  The  institution,"  he  says,  "  has  now  had  thirty  years  of 
experience,  that  is  to  say,  of  unvarying  successes.  Each 
year,  by  augmenting  the  account  of  the  employe,  makes 
liim  feel  more  strongly  the  advantage  of  the  deferred  par- 
ticipation. Each  year,  too,  the  company  appreciates  bet- 
ter what  it  gains  in  fidelity  in  return  for  these  sacrifices. 
My  general  principle  is  that  there  are  no  thoroughly  satis- 
factory business  transactions  except  those  which  are  satis- 
factory to  both  the  parties  concerned.  Experience  has  jus- 
tified our  institution  from  each  of  these  points  of  view. 
It  is  excellent  for  the  employes  and  excellent  for  the  com- 
pany." 

The  great  majority  of  participating  houses  combine  the 
systems  previously  described  ;  they  distribute  a  part  of  the 
employes'  share  of  profits  in  cash  bonuses,  and  invest  the 
remainder  for  purposes  of  saving.  Among  establishments 
thus  organized  is  the  firm  of  Billon  «fe  Isaac,  a  joint-stock 
company  manufacturing  parts  of  the  mechanism  of  music- 
boxes,  at  St.  Jean,  near  Geneva.  The  system  adopted  rests 
on  the  following  exceptionally  liberal  basis :  after  deduc- 
tion of  interest  on  capital  and  payments  to  the  reserve  and 
maintenance  fund,  the  entire  net  profits  are  divided  into 
two  equal  parts.  One  of  these  parts  goes  to  the  share- 
holders and  the  administration,  the  other  part  constitutes 
the  portion  assigned  to  labor.  Of  this  latter  sum  one- 
half  is  annually  distributed  in  cash  bonuses  proportional  to 
wages  earned  individually  during  the  year,  and  the  remain- 
ing half  is  invested  in  the  gradual  purchase,  for  the  respect- 


A    PLEA    FOB    PROFIT-SHARING.  911 

ivc  beneficiaries,  of  £4  shares  in  the  company,  which  carry 
with  them  votes  at  its  general  meetings.  The  following 
extract  from  a  letter  written  by  a  workman  in  this  estab- 
lishment shows  the  results  of  the  system  : 

"  The  undersigned  has  been  working  for  the  last  eight 
years  in  this  factory  ;  he  has  therefore  had  sufficient  op- 
portunities for  observation  in  this  respect,  and  he  can  tes- 
tify that  participations  in  profits  has  done  real  wonders  in 
it ;  one  might  even  say  that  it  has  entirely  altered  the  mode 
of  life  and  habits  of  the  workmen.  Formerly,  no  one 
thought  save  of  himself  and  of  his  individual  interests', 
quarrels  about  work  were  nothing  out  of  the  common  way. 
Now,  on  the  contrary,  all  consider  themselves  as  members 
of  one  and  the  same  family,  and  the  good  of  the  establish- 
ment has  become  the  object  of  every  one's  solicitude,  be- 
cause our  own  personal  interest  is  bound  up  in  it.  It  is 
with  pleasure  that  one  remarks  how  each  man  strives  to 
fill  up  his  time  with  conscientious  effort  to  effect  the  ut- 
most possible  saving  on  the  materials,  to  collect  carefully 
the  fallen  chips  of  metal ;  and  how,  if  one  or  other  now 
and  then  is  guilty  of  some  negligence,  a  joking  remark 
from  his  neighbor  suffices  to  bring  him  to  order  again," 

The  above  shows  the  feeling  of  the  employes ;  now  let 
us  sec  what  the  head  of  the  establishment  has  to  say.  M. 
Billon,  in  1877,  after  a  thorough  trial  of  the  system,  said: 

"  We  soon  became  aware  of  the  good  influence  which 
the  prospect  of  sharing  in  profits  exercised  on  our  work- 
men. An  entirely  fresh  zeal  for  work  and  a  lively  inter- 
est in  the  house  showed  themselves  among  them ;  a  genu- 
ine solidarity  was  not  slow  in  establishing  itself,  each  man 
comprehending  that  all  negligence  in  the  performance  of 
his  duty  was  prejudicial  alike  to  his  colleagues  and  to  him- 
self. The  task  of  superintendence  became  easy  to  us,  and 
we  were  able  thenceforward,  without  fear  of  offending  any 


212  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

one,  to  insist  on  points  of  detail  to  wliicli  wo.  had  liitliorto 
been  obliged  to  shut  our  eyes.  Moreover,  tbe  feeling  of 
security  with  whicli  the  attitude  of  our  workmen  inspired 
us  permitted  us  to  give  ourselves  up  wholly  to  the  devel- 
opment of  our  business.  ...  It  has  often  been  said  to  us, 
'You  have  not  had  difficulties  with  your  workmen,  thanks 
to  good  years.  But  let  an  industrial  crisis  arise,  and  great 
will  be  your  embarrassment  when  you  are  obliged  to  dis- 
miss your  employes.'  This  contingency,  which  assuredly 
we  had  foreseen  when  organizing  participation,  has  pre- 
sented itself ;  and  we  can  say  henceforward  that  it  has  done 
nothing  but  confirm  our  faith  in  the  principle." 

"We  cannot  more  than  name  a  few  of  the  establishments 
in  England  which  make  concessions  to  the  workmen  in  re- 
spect of  profits :  The  Leeds  Woollen  Cloth  Company,  after 
giving  ten  per  cent,  to  capital,  gives  one -half  of  the  ex- 
cess to  the  work-people ;  in  the  Oldham  Iron-works  Com- 
pany ten  per  cent,  first  goes  to  capital,  and  the  remaining 
profit,  after  providing  a  reserve  fund,  is  distributed  to  share- 
holders, workmen,  and  customers  in  equal  parts ;  the  Ouse- 
barn  Engineering  Company,  the  Uppermill  Woollen  Conj- 
pany,  and  the  Paisley  Manufacturing  Society  all  belong  to 
the  same  class.  There  have  also  been  a  number  of  experi- 
ments in  industrial  partnership  in  this  country,  notably 
the  Pacific  Mills,  of  Lawrence,  Mass.  ;  the  Millvale  Glass- 
works, New  Jersey  ;  the  Peacedale  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, Rhode  Island ;   and  Messrs.  Hazard,  of  New  York.* 

*  A.  S.  Cameron  &  Co.,  manufacturers  of  steam-pumping  machin- 
ery in  New  York  City,  began  to  divide  profits  with  their  employes  in 
July,  1869,  and  continued  the  practice  with  marlied  success  for  eight 
years.  It  came  to  an  end  by  Mr.  Cameron's  death,  in  1877.  The 
bonus  was  four  and  a  half  per  cent,  on  wages  each  year,  and  did  not 
operate  to  reduce  wages  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  were  several  times  in- 
creased.    It  had  a  salutary  effect  on  the  men^  morally  as  well  as  eco- 


A    PLEA    FOR    PROFIT-SHARING.  213 

Three  years  ago  Messrs.  Charles  A.  Pillsbnry  &:  Co.,  mer- 
chant millers,  Minneapolis,  Minn.,  instituted  an  arrange- 
ment among  their  employes  for  the  distribution  of  surplus 
profits  among  them.  They  wrote  as  follows  concerning 
their  methods : 

"  In  explanation  of  the  system  we  have  adopted,  would 
say,  that  for  the  past  three  or  four  years  it  has  been  our 
rule  to  set  aside  a  certain  percentage  of  our  profits  for  the 
benefit  of  our  workmen.  We  have  included  in  it  every 
man  in  our  employ  who  occupied  a  particularly  responsible 
position,  without  any  reference  to  the  time  he  had  been  in 
our  employ  ;  and  also  every  man  who  had  been  in  our  em- 
ploy five  years  or  over,  no  matter  how  unimportant  his 


nomically,  and  presumably  upon  the  business  success  of  the  firm.  An 
industrial  partnership  which  gave  to  employes  an  important  share  in 
framing  the  regulations  and  controlling  the  conditions  under  which 
they  worked,  as  well  as  participation  in  profits,  was  formed  at  the 
close  of  the  year  18C9  by  Brewster  &  Co.,  carriage  builders,  at  New 
York,  and  dissolved  in  June,  1872,  by  tlie  workmen  joining  the  eight- 
hour  strike.  The  dividend  to  labor  was  ten  per  cent,  of  the  firm's 
gross  profits.  It  was  divided  in  proi)ortion  to  wages.  A  relief  fund 
was  also  maintained.  By  a  thorough  system  of  organization  the  em- 
ployes had  power  to  take  care  of  their  own  interests,  a  member  of 
the  firm  being  president  of  the  association.  Of  this  arrangement  the 
Ma.ssachusetts  Report  of  Labor  Statistics  for  188G  says:  "This  ar- 
rangement, during  tiie  two  years  and  a  half  of  its  continuance,  gave 
entire  satiafaction,  and  the  excited  action  of  the  employes  by  wiiich 
it  was  terminated  was  one  of  the  strangest  freaks  of  epidemic  excite- 
ment on  record.  By  the  constitution  of  their  association  they  had  it 
in  their  own  power,  through  their  Board  of  Governors,  to  make  eight 
hour.-j  a  working  day,  which  was  the  object  of  the  general  strike  iu 
which  they  joined.  Tiiey  seemed  to  have  been  literally  crazed  by  the 
popidar  turmoil.  They  forfeited  a  dividend  of  $11,01)0  whicii  would 
have  been  due  a  month  later,  besides  losing  $8000  in  wages,  and  at 
the  end  of  two  weeks  went  back  to  work  on  the  old  plan  of  simple 
wages,  witluHit  a  single  concession  on  the  part  of  Brewster  k  Co." 


214  THE    LADOR  PROBLEM. 

position  might  bo.  The.  division  Ims  boon  made  strictly  on 
the  basis  of  tlio  weekly  salary  paid  to  eacli  employe. 

"All  we  can  say  is,  that  we  are  more  than  pleased  with 
the  result.  It  has  been  our  great  pleasure  to  give  our  men 
very  substantial  checks,  amounting  generally  to  from  twen- 
ty-five to  forty  per  cent,  of  their  salary  for  the  year.  If 
the  writer  (Mr.  Charles  A.  Pillsbury)  was  to  have  had  his 
own  way  in  the  matter  he  would  have  made  the  system  a 
little  broader,  and  have  it  apply  to  every  man  who  has 
been  in  our  employ  for  three  years  or  over ;  but  having 
commenced  a  system  we  dislike  to  change  it,  as  it  would 
make  the  amount  to  be  received  by  the  men  who  are  now 
getting  it  under  the  percentage  so  much  the  less. 

"  We  have  never  made  any  reduction  in  wages,  notwith- 
standing the  milling  business  has  seen  some  pretty  hard 
times ;  but  men  who  are  fortunate  enough  to  have  been  in 
our  employ  several  years  are  at  least  getting  as  high  wages 
as  they  received  when  they  first  came  in, 

"  In  hiring  new  workmen  we  somewhat  recognize  the 
market-price  of  labor,  but  have  never  gone  anywhere  near 
the  lowest  market-price. 

"  We  think  a  system  of  this  kind  generally  adopted  would 
go  far  towards  settling  the  differences  between  Labor  and 
Capital  which  are  so  much  to  be  deplored  by  every  one. 
While  strikes  are  very  often  almost  unjustifiable,  and 
means  and  methods  are  pursued  during  them  which  cannot 
be  defended,  we  think  that  there  are  but  very  few  strikes 
where  the  reason  cannot  be  traced  back  to  the  greed  of  Cap- 
ital. We  think  there  are  few  laboring  men  in  this  country 
so  ignorant  that  if  they  think  their  employers  are  in- 
clined to  deal  justly  and  fairly  by  them,  they  can  be  influ- 
enced by  unscrupulous  demagogues ;  but  we  are  frank  to 
admit  that  we  doubt  very  much  whether  we  have  lost  any- 
thing by  the  extra  money  we  have  thus  distributed  among 


A    PLEA    FOR    PROFIT-SHARING.  215 

onv  men.  Our  business  is  of  such  a  nature  tliat  it  is  large- 
ly dependent  upon  the  extra  skill  and  absolute  fidelity  of 
each  and  every  one  of  our  workmen,  and  we  tbitdc  we  get 
the  very  best,  most  loyal,  and  faithful  help  in  the  world, 
and  by  inducing  our  old  mo*i  to  stay  by  us  that  we  are  get- 
ting back  largely,  if  not  entirely,  all  we  pay  out  to  them. 
At  any  rate,  we  can  cordially  recommend  any  one  employ- 
ing a  large  number  of  men  to  try  the  system  for  a  few 
years  and  see  how  it  works.  Wc  think  they  will  not  be 
troubled  by  strikes  among  their  men,  or  anything  of  the 
kind,  and  peace  of  mind  is  certainly  worth  something." 

Mr.  J.  G.  Batterson,  President  of  the  New  England  Gran- 
ite Works,  at  Westerly,  R.  I.,  in  a  recent  letter  to  the  su- 
perintendent of  the  company,  sets  forth  a  detailed  plan  fur 
the  division  of  the  profits  of  the  business  between  the  cap- 
ital and  labor  employed.  Mr.  Batterson  suggests  this  plan 
because,  as  now  conducted,  the  company  at  times  has  been 
"forced  to  decline  orders  of  considerable  magnitude,  for 
the  reason  that  we  dare  not  run  the  risk  of  a  strike,  which 
might  involve  us  in  heavy  damages." 

His  proposition  is,  in  brief,  that  both  Capital  and  Labor 
shall  share  in  the  net  profit  made  on  all  the  orders  executed 
during  188G  by  the  company,  in  proportion  to  the  amounts 
or  values  contributed  by  each.  This  net  jirofit  is  to  be  de- 
termined by  deducting  from  the  gross  receipts,  first,  the 
wages  of  the  men  employed  as  journeymen,  which  shall  be 
paid  monthly,  and,  secondly,  the  other  expenses  of  conduct- 
ing the  business,  superintendence,  travelling  expenses,  clerk 
hire,  taxes,  insurance,  and  Ict^fal  interest  on  capital  em- 
ployed. The  amount  left  shall  then  bo  divided  into  three 
parts,  one  as  a  dividend  to  labor,  one  as  a  dividend  to  cap- 
ital, and  one  to  be  reserved  as  a  guarantee  fund,  to  which 
shall  be  charged  all  losses  by  bad  debts,  or  credits  given 
for  materials  and  labor  during  the  year. 


21G  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

The  labor  dividend  sliall  be  paid  before  any  dividend 
is  paid  to  capital,  and  the  time  of  pa}'inent  shall  be  at  the 
end  of  the  fiscal  year.  The  statement  of  the  net  profits 
shall  be  verified  by  a  competent  accountant  selected  and 
agreed  upon  by  the  parties  in  interest.  As  the  labor  divi- 
dend is  for  labor  only,  no  oflBcer,  superintendent,  overseer, 
cleric,  or  agent  will  participate  in  it ;  and  no  workman  who 
is  discharged  during  the  year  for  good  and  sufficient  cause, 
such  as  drunkenness  or  bad  workmanship,  or  who  leaves 
the  employment  of  the  company  without  consent  of  the 
superintendent  in  writing,  shall  be  entitled  to  any  share. 
Discharge  because  of  mere  lack  of  work  for  him  shall  not, 
however,  deprive  a  hand  of  his  dividend. 

But  the  value  of  all  labor  contributed  to  the  business 
for  the  year  shall,  for  the  purposes  of  a  dividend,  be  treated 
as  so  much  capital,  "  which  capital,  having  been  returned 
to  the  laborer  in  the  form  of  wages,  is  still  entitled  to  a 
share  of  the  profits  in  just  proportion  to  the  amount  con- 
tributed during  the  year  in  which  such  profits  are  made." 

Mr.  Battcrson  then  describes  his  plan  for  the  division  of 
the  dividend  to  labor : 

"  The  true  value  of  all  labor  contributed  as  aforesaid 
shall  be  determined  by  the  amounts  earned,  and  credited 
to  each  workman  as  wages  for  labor  performed  during  the 
year;  and  the  dividend  to  each  will  be  declared  upon  the 
exact  amount  thus  earned,  and  credited  to  his  individual 
account.  For  example  :  suppose  the  entire  amount  of  cap- 
ital employed  to  be  $100,000,  and  the  entire  amount  paid 
for  labor  during  the  year  to  be  $150,000.  Such  an  amount 
of  capital  employed  and  wages  paid  ought  to  insure  an 
output  of  $400,000,  and  a  net  profit  of  $25,000.  Of  this 
amount  one-third,  or  $8,333.33,  would  be  credited  to  guar- 
antee account  to  provide  for  an  assumed  loss  of  about  two 
per  cent,  on  the  entire  output;  the  balance  would  remain 


A    PLEA    FOR    PROFIT-SHARING.  21 V 

for  a  dividend  to  capital  and  labor  in  proportion  to  thoir 
respective  contributions  —  in  this  example  two -fifths  to 
capital  ($6,6GG.G7)  and  three-fifths  to  labor  ($10,000),  or 
C.G6  per  cent,  on  each  ;  thus  the  workman  whose  wages  for 
the  year  amounts  to  $1000  would  have  a  dividend  of  $GG.GG, 
and  he  wliose  wages  amounts  to  $G00  would  have  §39. 9G. 
This  dividend  to  labor  would  also  be  materially  increased, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  all  those  who  take  work  by  contract, 
superintendents,  clerks,  apprentices,  etc.,  do  not  participate  ; 
so  that  if  each  man's  labor  be  treated  as  so  much  capital 
contributed  to  the  business,  that  capital  is  not  only  re- 
turned to  its  owner  as  wages  at  the  end  of  each  month, 
but  at  the  end  of  the  year  it  is  again  reckoned  and  re- 
warded with  a  high  rate  of  interest." 

All  outstanding  accounts  and  bills  receivable  at  the  end 
of  the  year  shall  be  treated  as  good  under  the  guarantee 
account,  and  included  in  the  net  profits;  and  if  this  guar- 
antee fund  is  not  enough  to  cover  the  losses,  the  amount 
must  be  made  up  by  the  stockholders;  while  if  it  is  more 
than  sufficient,  the  surplus  will  belong  to  the  stockholders, 
who  will  necessarily  have  control  of  the  business;  h>r  "men 
employed  every  day  in  mechanical  labor  cannot  watch  the 
markets,  or  possess  that  aptitude  for  business  management 
on  a  large  scale  which  is  requisite  to  success."  Finally, 
work  done  or  money  earned  by  the  aid  of  machinery  will 
be  counted  to  the  credit  of  labor,  and  will  share  in  the 
distribution  of  profits  the  same  as  day's  work  or  piece 
work. 

Commenting  on  tiiis  plan,  Mr.  Battcrson  says  :  "  With  the 
results  of  a  long  experience  before  mc,  I  am  convinced  that 
the  payment  of  fixed  wages  to  a  large  number  of  men  car- 
ries with  it  no  inspiring  motive  to  the  altainmctit  of  a  high 
standard  of  excellence,  either  as  to  the  quantity  or  <jualily 
of  their  productions;  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  tfiids  to  in 


218  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

difference  and  laziness  to  such  an  extent  that  the  measure 
of  a  fair  day's  work  is  not  that  quantity  which  can  easily 
be  done  and  well  done  by  a  good  man,  but  that  quantity 
which  an  indifferent  man  is  willing  to  do  and  can  do  witli- 
out  much  effort.  The  consequence  is  that  the  best  men 
who  are  endowed  with  both  energy  and  skill  soon  break 
away  from  the  restraints  of  idleness,  and  by  the  'bill  of 
prices  fixed  for  piece-work '  obtain  a  larger  freedom  and  a 
larger  reward  for  their  labor ;  and  the  fact  appears  also, 
that  this  system  of  compensating  labor  is  most  remunera- 
tive to  the  employer,  which  brings  us  to  the  point,  that  the 
average  and  indifferent  workman  does  not  earn  his  wages 
when  tested  by  the  standard  of  his  own  '  bill  of  prices.' 

"  I  believe,  then,  most  thoroughly  in  the  efficacy  of  indi- 
vidual interest  as  the  only  available  stimulant  to  natural 
ambition,  and  the  best  results  both  to  Capital  and  Labor. 
When  the  interests  of  Capital  and  Labor  are  made  identi- 
cal and  well  balanced,  I  believe  the  conflict  between  them 
will  cease,  and  both  will  be  the  gainers  thereby. 

"I  sympathize  with  the  laudable  ambition  of  the  skilled 
workman  to  emancipate  himself  from  the  thraldom  of  a 
service  in  wliich  he  has  no  other  interest  than  daily  wages, 
and  who  aspires  to  that  identity  of  interest  in  results  which 
begets  self-respect  and  a  worthy  pride  in  the  success  of  his 
own  company  or  corporation. 

"  When  the  workmen  are  all  interested  in  the  results  of 
their  combined  labor,  there  will  be  no  room  for  those  who 
are  unwilling  to  earn,  and  fairly  earn,  the  wages  which  they 
demand.  When  the  industrious  and  skilful  workman  sees 
that  his  own  earnings  are  being  diminished  by  the  slothful 
and  unskilful  workmen  at  his  side,  he  will  rebel,  and  de- 
mand, as  he  will  have  the  right  to  do,  that  a  better  man 
shall  be  put  in  the  place  of  the  laggard." 

Ara  Cushman  &  Co.,  shoe  manufacturers  at  Auburn, 


A    PLEA    FOR    PROFIT-SHARING.  219 

Mo.,  have  just  submitted  n  proposition  to  thcii'  employes, 
numbering  seven  hundred.     The  details  are  as  follows: 

The  firm  begin  with  the  fundamental  proposition  that 
success  in  industrial  enterprise  depends  on  high  managerial 
character  and  skill,  thorough  organization,  faithful  superin- 
tendence, the  minimizing  of  waste,  and  faithfulness  in  the 
employe.  It  is  well  urged  that  in  the  degree  of  the  hearty 
co-operation  of  all  these  elements  of  success,  is  success,  es- 
pecially in  great  enterprises,  to  be  won.  "  We  want,"  says 
Mr.  Cushman,  "  to  make  the  business  more  secure  and  per- 
manent, and  our  relations  with  our  workmen  more  fraternal. 
Wo  want  to  avoid  the  feeling  of  jealousy  and  antagonism 
that  often  exists  between  Capital  and  Labor,  with  conse- 
quent loss  to  both.  In  short,  we  want  to  secure  practical 
co-operation  in  spirit  and  letter,  in  a  thoroughly  organized, 
efficiently  managed,  and  honorably  conducted  business,  that 
shall  result  in  the  greatest  possible  '  gains  and  honors,' 
wherein  every  interest  and  every  individual  shall  justly  and 
equitably  share.  To  accomplish  these  purposes  and  make 
them  apparent  to  the  employes,  we  shall  first  pay  in  wages 
the  going  prices,  which  we  wish  to  be  as  high  as  they  can 
be  without  lessening  the  volume  of  business  which  we  all 
hope  to  sec  done  in  Auburn,  Then,  after  setting  aside  a  fair 
and  just  amount  for  interest  on  capital,  risks  and  contin- 
gencies of  business,  depreciation  of  factory  and  machinery, 
and  remuneration  for  managing  the  business,  if  any  profit 
remain  we  will  divide  it  with  the  employes  and  ourselves 
in  the  proportion  that  labor  contributes  to  the  cost  of  the 
goods,  the  dividend  to  be  based  on  the  amount  earned  by 
each." 

The  management  of  the  business,  it  will  be  seen  by  the 
above,  is  entirely  in  tlic  hands  of  the  firm.  At  the  same 
time  three  of  the  employes,  to  be  selcctc(l  or  elected  by  the 
employ63  to  represent  them,  arc  to  be  informed  sufficiently 


220  THE    LADOR    PROBLEM. 

about  tlie  condition  and  results  of  the  business  at  the  end 
of  each  year,  to  enable  them  to  report  that  the  above  prom- 
ises have  been  correctly  and  faithfully  carried  out.  These 
representatives  are  not  to  disclose  or  make  public  any  fact 
concerning  the  business,  except  the  amount  or  percentage 
of  dividend  available  for  the  employes.  They  must  all  three 
be  citizens  of  Auburn,  and  two,  at  least,  must  be  owners  of 
property  and  interested  in  the  growth  and  prosperity  of 
Auburn. 

We  do  not  risk  anything  in  the  prediction  that  such  a 
scheme,  thoroughly  carried  out,  will  prove  a  success.  Par- 
ticipation furnishes  to  the  workman  a  supplementary  in- 
come under  circumstances  which  directly  encourage,  or 
even,  by  a  gentle  compulsion,  actually  enforce  saving,  and 
by  associating  him  in  a  very  real  sense  with  his  employer 
it  arouses  aspirations  from  which  great  moral  improvement 
may  be  confidently  anticipated.  The  employer,  besides  shar- 
ing in  whatever  surplus  profits  are  realized  by  the  more 
efficient  labor  which  participation  calls  forth,  obtains  the 
boon  of  industrial  stability  and  the  support  of  a  united 
corporate  feeling  elsewhere  unknown.  Independently  of 
these  advantages  to  the  two  parties  directly  concerned,  the 
customer  of  a  participating  house  finds  in  its  very  organ- 
ization a  guarantee  for  enhanced  excellence  of  workman- 
ship and  rapidity  of  execution. 

Early  in  March  of  the  present  year  the  N.  0.  Nelson 
Manufacturing  Company,  St.  Louis,  made  a  proposition  to 
divide  the  profits  of  the  business  with  their  employes.  The 
proposition  was  accepted  and  a  contract  entered  into,  the 
details  of  which  are  as  follows:  The  contract  is  for  the  year 
1886,  and  is  between  the  N.  O.  Nelson  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany and  their  employes  who  have  been  in  employment  six 
months,  and  have  not  been  discharged  for  misconduct  or  in- 
corupetency.     After  deducting  its  had  debts,  and  paying  to 


A    PLBA    FOR    PROFIT-SHARING.  221 

officers  and  employes  their  regular  salaries  and  wages  and  all 
expenses  of  business,  the  company  shall  pay  seven  per  cent, 
on  its  net  capital  in  use.  The  remaining  profits  of  the 
business  for  said  year  shall  be  divided,  pro  rata,  upon  the 
total  salaries,  wages,  and  capital  employed.  It  shall  be  op- 
tional with  any  employe  to  draw  his  dividend  so  arising  as 
aforesaid  in  cash  at  the  expiration  of  said  year,  or  he  may 
receive  a  certificate  entitling  him  to  interest  and  to  share 
in  the  future  profits  of  its  business,  the  same  as  the  capital 
of  said  concern,  so  long  as  he  continues  in  its  employment ; 
and  should  he  cease  such  employment,  he  shall  be  paid  its 
face  in  cash.  A  majority  in  number  of  employes  may,  if 
they  choose,  select  some  one  to  examine  its  books  at  the 
annual  closing,  to  verify  the  account  of  profit  and  divi- 
dend. 

The  Bucyrus  Foundry  and  Manufacturing  Company,  of 
Bucyrus,  Ohio,  by  a  vote  of  its  board  of  directors,  has  adopt- 
ed a  system  of  profit-sharing.  The  system  is  adopted  exper- 
imentally for  the  year  1 886,  the  company  reserving  seven  per 
cent,  on  its  capital  stock,  and  dividing  all  net  earnings  over 
and  above  this  amount,  in  a  certain  ratio,  between  the  com- 
pany and  its  employes,  each  employe  receiving  an  amount 
proportional  to  the  wages  paid  him  during  the  year.  Men 
discharged  for  cause,  or  leaving  the  employ  of  the  company 
on  their  own  account,  forfeit  all  right  to  their  share  of  the 
profit,  as  do  any  employes  who  unite  in  any  combination 
for  the  purpose  of  coercing  the  company  or  embarrassing 
its  business. 

A  tobacco  manufacturing  firm  in  Dayton,  Ohio,  Messrs. 
Cotterill,  Fenner  &  Co.,  have  adopted  a  profit-sharing  plan, 
of  which  the  leading  features  are  the  following:  From  the 
not  profits  of  the  business  the  firm  is  to  receive  an  amount 
agreed  upon  by  all  the  ])artics  to  the  agreement  as  com- 
pensation for  capital,  skill,  services,  and  the  good-will  of 


222  TlIK    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

the  business.  This  amount  will,  to  begin  with,  it  is  stated, 
be  seven  thousand  dollars  loss  than  the  profits  of  the  firm  in 
1884,  and  much  less  than  the  average  profits  for  the  last  fif- 
teen years.  The  employes  are  to  be  paid  the  same  wages 
in  cash  each  week  as  they  have  received  heretofore.  Tliey 
will  be  subject  to  dismissal  for  cause  by  tbe  foreman  with 
the  assent  of  tbe  firm.  Any  one,  in  order  to  be  entitled  to 
a  share  in  the  profits  of  any  year,  must  have  worked  for 
eight  months  of  that  year.  The  salary  allowed  the  firm — 
salesmen,  book-keepers,  and  workmen,  is  recognized  as  the 
measure  of  tbe  services  tbey  have  respectively  contributed 
to  the  accumulation  of  profits,  and  they  will  share  in  the 
profits  in  proportion  to  such  salaries.  The  dividends  are 
payable  in  cash  at  the  end  of  each  year.  The  adoption  of 
this  plan  is  purely  voluntary  on  tbe  part  of  the  firm,  and 
"  based  on  tbe  conviction  that  it  is  our  duty  to  place  with- 
in the  power  of  our  employes  means  by  which  they  can  pro- 
mote their  own  interests  while  laboring  for  ours."  They 
admit  that  they  are  not  without  hope  of  advantage  to  them- 
selves, since  tbe  employes,  having  a  direct  interest  in  the 
prosperity  of  the  business,  may  reasonably  be  expected  to 
render  as  good  service  as  they  can,  and  contribute  in  every 
way  tbey  can  to  promote  success. 

An  Omaha,  Neb.,  firm  of  plumbers  and  gas-fitters,  Messrs. 
AVelshans  &  McEwan,  have  issued  a  circular  stating  that 
beginning  with  May  6th  they  will  divide  all  profits,  after 
deducting  ten  per  cent,  for  interest  on  actual  capital,  equally 
upon  a  basis  of  tbe  total  amount  of  wages  paid  and  the 
capital  employed. 

The  profit-sharing  idea  has  been  adopted  in  tbe  extensive 
establishment  of  E.  P.  Allis  &  Co.,  Milwaukee,  Wis.  The 
substance  of  tbe  plan  as  suggested  by  Mr.  Allis  is  as  follows: 
"  A  written  contract  is  entered  into  between  myself  and 
each  employe  joining  the  association,  wherein  the  employe 


A    PLEA    FOR    PROFIT-SHARING.  223 

agrees  that  a  certain  percentage — five  percent.,  more  or  less, 
as  may  be  agreed — of  his  wages  shall  go  to  this  investment 
fund,  and  I  agree  with  him  to  invest  precisely  the  same 
amount  in  the  same  fund  at  the  same  time,  thus  making 
the  aggregate  fund  belong  equally  to  employer  and  em- 
ployes. This  fund  is  to  be  managed  by  a  board  of  direct- 
ors from  our  works,  chosen  equally  by  yourselves  and  by 
myself,  of  which  board  I  am  a  permanent  member  and  pres- 
ident. In  this  way  we  have  a  fund  in  which  we  arc  equal 
owners,  and  equally  responsible  in  its  management,  and  se- 
cure the  best  judgment  and  greatest  ability  we  jointly  pos- 
sess for  the  purpose  This  fund,  if  the  plan  meets  your 
approval  and  general  adoption,  is  likely  to  be  a  large  one  in 
time,  and  its  investment  and  use  is  left  to  the  judgment  of 
the  board  ;  and  whether  it  is  used  in  providing  homes  for 
members,  in  real  estate  investments,  in  interest  bearing  se- 
curities, or  in  industrial  works  to  be  operated  in  common, 
will  be  governed  by  the  current  of  events,  and  in  either 
case  is  practical  co-operation.  As  this  association  is  con- 
fined exclusively  to  my  employes,  and  is  intended  for  our 
nmtual  and  equal  benefit  in  all  respects,  I  heartily  commend 
it  to  you,  and  hope  every  one  in  my  employ  will  become  a 
member,  with  a  view  of  making  it  a  long  step  towards  the 
solution  of  the  troublesome  labor  question." 

That  the  idea  of  profit-sharing  is  not  a  guesswork  nos- 
trum for  a  disease,  but  a  reasonable  and  philosophical- 
ly sound  remedy  for  causes  of  discontent  incident  to  the 
wage  system,  is  shown  by  the  favor  with  which  it  has 
been  received  by  men  of  eminence  and  standing  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Only  a  few  months  ago  Hon.  Da- 
vid Dudley  Field  contributed  an  article  on  "  Industrial  Co- 
operation" to  one  of  the  reviews,  in  which  he  advocated 
the  principle  of  association  as  a  bridge  over  a  chasm  yawn- 
ing wider  and  wider  every  day  between  Capital  and  Labor. 


234  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

"To  induce  the  capitalist,"  he  said,  "to  take  tlic  laborer 
into  tliis  kind  of  partnership  to  which  corporations  are  best 
adapted,  may  tend  to  the  support  and  cnriclunent  of  both, 
and  to  the  solution  of  that  problem  whicli  now,  more  per- 
haps than  any  other,  confronts  the  world.  ...  If  we  were 
asked  what  inducements  capitalists  would  liave  to  enter 
into  such  arrangements,  we  should  answer  that,  apart  from 
the  fraternal  motives  that  are  supposed  to  influence  all  the 
members  of  the  liuman  family,  there  are  such  economic 
reasons  as  these :  that  the  scheme,  if  successful,  would  bind 
employer  and  employed  closer  together,  lead  the  latter  to 
strive  more  and  more  for  the  increase  of  the  common  prod- 
uct, advance  his  self-respect,  do  away  with  strikes,  give 
security  to  capital,  and  heal  the  breach  between  Capital 
and  Labor."  Charles  Waring,  after  recounting  the  success 
which  has  attended  the  introduction  of  the  principle  in 
England  and  France,  says:  "To  the  workman  this  change 
of  system  would  prove  an  unmixed  blessing.  .  .  .  The  fort- 
unes of  the  owner  of  capital  and  the  owner  of  labor  would 
be  inseparable;  they  w^ould  mutually,  and  certainly  more 
cheerfully,  as  being  better  able,  bear  the  bad  fortune  of 
evil  times.  Instead  of  wrangling,  as  at  present,  over  the 
wrecks  and  salvage  of  their  fallen  industry,  they  w'ould 
brace  themselves  to  the  support  of  the  joint  burden,  and  by 
exercise  of  mutual  self-denial  and  redoubled  energy,  per- 
severance, and  intelligent  invention,  they  would  further 
economize  the  cost  of  production." 

Dr.  Simon  Newcorab  suggests,  in  his  work  on  "  The  Or- 
ganization of  Labor,"  that  the  general  indifference  of  the 
educated  public  to  measures  having  for  their  object  the 
elevation  of  the  wage  class,  by  instructing  them  in  the 
general  principles  of  social  well  -  being,  "  must  be  looked 
upon  as  a  potent  cause  of  the  abnormal  state  of  things  now 
in  existence."     He  adds  that  "  a  very  small  division  of  the 


A    PLEA    FOR    PROFIT-SHAKING.  22o 

annual  profits  of  the  establishment  among  the  cmploj'cs 
will  do  all  that  is  necessary  in  the  purely  economical  line. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  plan  is  tried  with  entire  success  in 
many  establishments  here  and  abroad — establishments  in 
which  the  eaiployes  would  not  think  of  turning  against 
their  superiors  under  any  pressure  whatever."  Mr.  Thomas 
.Brassey,  the  great  contractor,  after  mentioning  many  en- 
couraging examples  of  this  form  of  co- operation,  says : 
"  Any  plan  by  which  workmen  may  be  made  to  realize 
that  tliey  row  in  the  same  boat  with  their  employers  should 
not  be  lightly  set  aside.  It  is  good  policy  to  forego  a 
portion  of  the  profits  of  a  prosperous  year,  in  order  to  avert 
the  calamity  of  a  strike,  with  all  its  attendant  evils  of  loss 
of  profit,  and  bitterness  and  strife  between  masters  and  men. 
Capital  and  Labor  are  essentially  necessary  and  independent 
elements  of  production,  and  the  man  of  business,  not  less 
than  the  philanthropist,  must  desire  to  see  the  representa- 
tives of  these  two  interests  allied."  Lord  Derby  says  :  "  It 
is  human  nature  that  a  man  should  like  to  feel  that  he  is 
to  be  the  gainer  by  any  extra  industry  that  he  may  put 
forth  ;  that  he  would  like  to  have  some  sense  of  proprie- 
torship in  a  shop  or  a  mill,  or  whatever  it  may  be,  in  which 
he  spends  his  days ;  and  it  is  because  the  system,  intro- 
duced of  late  years,  of  co-operative  industry,  meets  this  nat- 
ural wish,  that  I  look  forward  to  its  extension  with  so  much 
hopefulness,  I  believe  it  is  the  best  and  surest  remedy  for 
that  antagonism  of  Labor  and  Capital  which  we  hear  so 
much  talk  of,  and  which  to  a  certain  extent  no  doubt  ex- 
ists." Dr.  Francis  A.  Walker,  in  his  work  on  "The  Wages 
(Question,"  not  only  regards  the  scheme  as  practicable,  but 
adds :  "  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  that  such  a  relation  will 
be  introduced  extensively  with  tlic  most  benclicial  re- 
sults." 

i)r.  W.   T.   ]<arnard,  assistant   to   the;    rresidcnt   of  the 
15 


226 


THE    L ABO  11    PROBLEM. 


Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  in  a  scries  of  articles  cm- 
bodyinf^  tlie  results  of  years  of  observation  and  experience, 
concludes  with  the  following:  "The  proverbial  conserva- 
tism and  timidity  of  Capital  make  it  slow  to  realize  the 
logical  sequence  of  experiments  which  have  a  vital  bearing 
on  its  invested  interests.  The  uniform  success  and  in- 
creased prosperity  which  have  attended  industrial  partner- 
ships between  capitalists  and  their  workmen  —  practised 
more  extensively  on  the  continent  of  Europe  than  in  Eng- 
land, and  little  or  not  at  all  with  us — show  to  the  disin- 
terested, thoughtful  mind  that  herein,  more  than  in  efforts 
in  all  otlicr  directions  combined,  excellent  though  their  ef- 
fect may  be,  lies  the  true  solution  of  the  gravest  and  most 
important  question  pending  before  the  world — i.  e.,  how  to 
equitably  adjust  the  relations  between  Capital  and  Labor. 
Probably  the  serious  contemplation  of  a  division,  no  matter 
how  minute,  of  their  profits  with  those  whose  labor  made 
them  would  incite  in  the  minds  of  our  railway  share  and 
bond  holders  such  alarm  and  opposition  as  would  displace 
any  management  advancing  such  a  proposition  ;  yet  on  one 
or  more  of  the  most  important  railroads  in  France  judicious 
action  in  tliis  direction  has  resulted  in  the  employes  becom- 
ing the  majority  owners  of  the  securities  of  the  properties 
they  operate;  and  those  corporations  and  firms  in  whose 
profits  the  workmen  are  allowed  to  participate  have  expe- 
rienced increased  prosperity  and  decreased  migration  and 
irregularity  in  attendance  of  the  workmen,  whose  general 
standard  of  efiiciency  has  been  raised  by  the  competition 
to  share  such  benefits,  and  this  unity  of  interests  has  entire- 
ly isolated  them  from  the  effects  of  labor  agitations  and 
turmoils.  That  the  managers  of  such  great  interests  as 
those  of  our  railroads  and  mammoth  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments who  pioneer  a  reform  of  this  character  must  pos- 
sess great  nerve  and  resolution  as  \\e\i  as  influence,  goes 


A    PLEA    FOR    PROFIT-SHARING.  227 

wiiliout  saying;  but  the  constant  strife  and  competition 
now  prevailing,  necessitating  most  rigid  economies,  which 
almost  always  result  in  curtailment  of  wages  and  in  strikes, 
must  of  themselves  gradually  force  corporations  to  concert 
measures  for  securing  permanent  control  of  their  forces, 
and  none  can  be  so  effective  as  those  that  look  to  a  com- 
munity of  financial  interests.  The  manager  who  first  suc- 
ceeds in  applying  to  his  service  the  principle  of  industrial 
partnersliip  will  prove  a  Napoleon  in  the  railroad  world, 
and  a  dictator  to  all  competitors.  That  some  one  compe- 
tent, and  of  influence  sufiicient  to  direct  such  a  movement, 
may  shortly  arise  is  not  altogether  improbable,  for  already 
the  president  of  one  of  the  great  Eastern  trunk  lines,  when 
recently  recapitulating  what  his  board  of  management  had 
done  to  cultivate  such  attachment  in  its  employes,  said: 
'  I  hope  to  sec  tlic  day  when  this  society  will  be  extended 
into  a  great  co- 0{)erative  association;  when  the  men  in 
this  service  will  individually  have  pecuniary  interests  in 
this  vast  property ;  when  the  men  who  run  the  trains  and 
operate  the  machinery,  and  all  others  having  steady  em- 
ployment, will  be  part  owners  in  this  great  corporation ; 
when  they  will  in  every  sense  be  identified  with  and  form 
a  part  of  this  company.'  " 

Mr.  F.  II.  Giddings,  of  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  who 
has  given  a  great  deal  of  time  and  attention  to  the  ques- 
tion in  all  its  bearings,  says:  "The  industrial  partnership 
at  its  best  is  the  most  perfect  type  of  industrial  organiza- 
tion. It  combines  ample  capital,  the  highest  business  tal- 
ent and  labor  on  a  basis  of  justice  and  mutual  helpfulness. 
Before  it  can  become  a  familiar  institution,  however,  it 
must  be  recognized  more  clearly  than  it  now  is  as  a  prod- 
uct of  growth,  and  not  the  arrangement  of  a  day.  An 
cniployer  who  is  itnpatient  fi)r  iiiiiiiediate  and  striking  re 
suits  had  better  not  experiiin'iit  in  this  (lircction  ;  but,  on 


228  THE    LABOR    PKOBLKM. 

the  other  hand,  I  have  yet  to  hear  of  an  industrial  partner- 
ship that  has  disappointed  expectations  after  a  considerable 
period  of  patient  effort  intelligently  directed.  It  is  best 
not  to  promise  or  attempt  too  much  at  first.  The  bonus 
to  labor  must  be  made  the  basis  of  educative  -work,  the 
employe  being  made  to  understand  that  it  is  the  reward  of 
increased  interest  and  fidelity  on  his  part.  When  this  idea 
gets  well  rooted,  the  arrangement  can  be  profitably  extend- 
ed and  made  more  liberal,  the  most  zealous  employes  being 
encouraged  then  to  become  stockholders  in  the  company, 
and  acquainted  with  its  accounts. 

"  The  most  mischievous  misconception  in  regard  to  profit- 
sharing,  which  is  doing  more  to  retard  its  extension  than 
anything  else,  is  the  impression  that  in  equity  some  in- 
genious plan  must  be  devised  to  throw  upon  the  workman 
a  share  of  losses  to  offset  his  share  of  profits.  It  is  for- 
gotten tliat  the  dividend  to  labor  is  not  paid  out  of  the 
employer's  normal  profit.  It  is  paid  usually  out  of  the 
additional  wealth  created  by  the  increased  zeal  and  effi- 
ciency of  the  worker.  In  so  far  as  it  is  increased  by  the 
adventitious  profit  due  to  an  exceptionally  favorable  state 
of  the  market  it  is  perfectly  just,  for  the  employe  bears 
his  full  share  of  risk  and  loss.  When  profits  are  reduced 
wages  are  cut  down,  or  perhaps  discontinued.  Further- 
more, by  our  system  of  discharges  in  bankruptcy  the  bulk 
of  the  losses  of  productive  enterprise  is  thrown  on  the 
community  in  such  wise  as  to  enter  into  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction of  commodities,  and  is  added  to  retail  prices  paid 
by  consumers,  including,  of  course,  the  working-men.  If 
only  to  remedy  this  unavoidable  injustice,  profit-sharing 
should  be  established." 

Hon.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  Commissioner  of  the  Bureau 
of  Labor  for  the  United  States,  in  his  first  annual  report, 
considers  at  some  length  sucrtrested  remedies  for  business 


A    PLEA    FOR    PROFIT-SHARING.  229 

depressions,  and  concludes  with  the  following  significant 
statements : 

"  What  is  known  as  industrial  copartnership,  involving 
profit-sharing  and  embodying  all  the  vitality  there  is  in  the 
principle  of  co-operation,  offers  a  practical  way  of  produc- 
ing goods  on  a  basis  at  once  just  to  Capital  and  to  Labor, 
and  one  which  brings  out  the  best  moral  elements  of  the 
capitalist  and  the  workman.  This  system  has  been  tried 
in  many  instances,  and  nearly  always  with  success.  In  the 
United  States  but  little  has  been  done  in  this  direction,  but 
wherever  the  principle  has  been  tried  there  have  been  three 
grand  results :  Labor  has  received  a  more  liberal  share  for 
its  skill,  Capital  has  been  better  remunerated,  and  the  mor- 
al tone  of  the  whole  community  involved  raised.  Employ- 
ment has  been  steadier  and  more  sure,  conflict  ceases,  and 
harmony  takes  the  place  of  disturbances. 

"  Profit-sharing  and  organization  of  all  the  forces  of  in- 
dustry would  aid  in  securing  a  more  just  division  of  the 
profits  of  production,  and  one  of  the  first  advantages  to  be 
gained  would  be  a  reduction  in  the  hours  of  labor,  consid- 
ered by  many  as  the  only  solution  for  the  labor  troubles, 
and  the  great  panacea  for  industrial  depressions.  It  is  cer- 
tain that,  under  the  present  conditions  of  manufacturing 
through  the  aid  of  machinery,  the  hours  of  labor  ought  to 
be  reduced,  because  the  draft  on  the  human  system  neces- 
sary to  enable  machinery  to  be  well  operated  is  so  much 
greater  than  under  hand  processes. 

"There  is  no  contest  between  Labor  and  Capital,  nor  be- 
tween the  laborer  and  capitalist  as  such,  but  there  is  a  con- 
test between  the  latter  as  to  the  profits  of  capital  and 
wages  of  labor,  or,  in  simple  terms,  as  to  the  profits  each 
shall  receive  for  his  respective  investment,  and  this  contest 
will  continue  so  long  as  the  purely  wage  system  lasts.  It 
is  absurd  to  say  that  the  interests  of  Capital  and  Labor  are 
identical.     They  are  no  more  identical  than  the  interests 


230  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

of  the  buyer  and  seller.  They  are,  however,  reciprocal,  and 
the  intelligent  comprehension  of  this  reciprocal  clement 
can  only  be  brought  into  the  fullest  play  by  the  most  com- 
plete organization,  so  that  each  party  shall  feel  that  he  is 
an  integral  part  of  the  whole  working  establishment." 

Under  the  system  of  participation  in  profits  there  are 
advantages  to  the  employer  which  may  be  summed  up  as 
follows :  First,  in  the  additional  security  of  his  capital  aris- 
ing from  the  division  of  his  risks  with  his  workmen ;  sec- 
ond, in  his  immunity  from  the  exactions  of  workmen,  which, 
owing  to  the  action  of  trades-unions,  are  becoming  more 
formidable ;  third,  in  the  saving  of  the  cost  of  the  war  of 
wages  ;  fourth,  in  the  cordial  co-operation  and  harmonious 
working  of  all  hands,  which  will  be  induced  by  their  com- 
mon interest  in  the  proceeds  of  their  labor ;  fifth,  in  the 
augmentation  of  those  proceeds  resulting  from  the  incen- 
tive of  the  men  to  work  more  and  more  intelligently  when 
working  for  themselves  than  when  doling  out  their  unwill- 
ing labor  and  dawdling  their  time  away  under  the  sys- 
tem of  fixed  time  and  fixed  wage.  To  the  workmen  this 
change  of  system  would  prove  an  unmixed  blessing.  Un- 
der it  he  would  become  a  partner  instead  of  a  servant,  and 
would  be  thus  entitled  to  an  equitable  share  of  the  profits 
of  the  partnership.  If  his  profit  under  it  were  limited  to 
his  share  of  the  cost  of  strikes  which  would  be  saved,  and 
the  increased  profit  arising  from  the  substitution  of  willing 
and  intelligent  labor  for  labor  grudgingly  and  mechanically 
performed,  the  result  of  which  he  would  share,  the  change 
would  be  amply  justified.  His  profit  is,  however,  not  so 
limited,  since  he  would  participate  in  all  the  profits  derived 
from  the  industry  in  which  he  would  be  engaged.  The 
owner  of  capital  and  the  owner  of  labor  would  be  linked 
together  in  the  bonds  of  union  and  fellowship.  Their 
fortunes  would  be  inseparable. 


CEAPTER  X. 

TRADES-UNIONS  AND  ARBITRATION. 

Disturbances  of  tlie  relations  existing  between  Capital 
and  Labor  by  strikes  and  lock-outs  may  be  anticipated  for 
many  years  to  come,  even  if  it  be  agreed  that  tliey  are 
avoidable  under  enlightened  conditions  of  civilization  and 
industry.  In  bis  "  Manual  of  Political  Economy,"  lion.  H. 
Fawcctt,  M.P.,  holds  that  it  is  as  hopeless  to  expect  that 
legislation  can  prevent  strikes  as  it  is  to  suppose  that  mer- 
chants could  be  compelled  to  sell  their  goods  if  an  ade- 
quate price  were  offered  for  them,  lie  explains  his  views 
in  this  way:  "As  long  as  the  relations  between  employers 
and  employed  continue  to  be  analagous  to  those  existing 
between  the  buyer  and  seller  of  a  commodity,  it  must  of- 
ten happen  that  the  one  party  will  refuse  to  accept  the 
price  which  is  offered  by  the  other  for  labor;  if  the  refus- 
al is  persisted  in,  a  strike  inevitably  ensues." 

But  while  it  is  true  that  human  nature  is  much  the  same 
in  all  ages,  and  while  it  is  likewise  true  that  the  relations 
between  Capital  and  Labor  very  nearly  correspond  to  thoso 
existing  between  the  buyer  and  the  seller  of  a  commodity, 
such  reflections  need  not,  and  fortunately  do  not,  signify  to 
an  enlightened  civilization  that  wages  disputes  can  only  bo 
settled  by  a  test  of  brute  endurance.  Most  men  arc  rea- 
sonable— the  necessities  of  advanced  industry  on  the  ono 
hand  and  of  dependence  upon  current  wages  on  the  other 
compel  them  to  be  so  in  many  cases.  And  while  no  law 
could  be  tolerated  that,  unasked,  wuuld  stop   in    between 


232  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

employer  and  employe,  and  force  a  settlement  of  their  dif- 
ferences, this  fact  should  not  discourage  efforts  in  the  di- 
rection of  legal  arbitration.  Every  State  in  the  Union  can 
provide  tlie  means  for  legally  settling  labor  disputes,  leav- 
ing it  to  the  contending  parties  themselves  to  decide  wheth- 
er they  shall  avail  themselves  of  such  means  or  not.  Pub- 
lic sentiment  throughout  the  country  is  very  generally  in 
favor  of  the  enactment  of  such  laws,  on  the  ground  that  if 
they  can  serve  no  useful  purpose  because  they  are  not  of- 
ten enough  appealed  to,  they  can,  at  least,  do  no  harm. 
Moreover,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  it  requires  time 
and  opportunity  for  laws  of  this  kind  to  make  their  pres- 
ence felt — the  aggressiveness  of  the  criminal  code  is  entire- 
ly wanting  in  them.  People  must  learn,  after  the  manner 
of  learning  in  some  of  the  European  States — by  degrees — 
that  industrial  arbitration  under  forms  of  law  may  attain  a 
high  standard  of  efficiency  and  excellence  if  properly  en- 
couraged. Again,  time  must  be  allowed  for  disarming  the 
suspicion  which  many  entertain  that  legal  arbitration  is 
covert  invasion  of  private  rigiits,  and  as  such  should  be  dis- 
couraged at  all  points.  Earlier  in  the  history  of  the  hu- 
man race  the  prototypes  of  this  class  would  have  insisted 
that  no  man's  life  or  estate  should  be  left  to  the  disposal 
of  a  court  of  law. 

But,  on  the  whole,  legal  arbitration  has  made  steady 
headway  in  this  country  ;  at  the  same  time  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  legislatures  have  done  more  to  advance  it  than 
have  the  employing  and  employed  classes.  In  those  States, 
particularly  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  where  boards  of  arbitra- 
tion may  be  created  upon  application  to  existing  courts  of 
law,  the  instances  are  not  numerous  in  which  such  boards 
have  been  called  into  existence.  Hence  it  happens  that 
the  merits  and  demerits  of  the  new  laws  have  gone  prac- 
tically untested,  both  Capital  and  Labor  preferring  to  ad- 


TRADES-UNIONS    AND    ARBITRATION.  233 

here  to  the  ancient  plan  of  exhausting  resources  to  deter- 
mine which  is  right,  or  else  settling  between  themselves 
by  compromise.  In  Ohio  the  law  was  enacted  February 
10,  1885,  to  "  authorize  the  creation  and  to  provide  for  the 
o[)eration  of  tribunals  of  voluntary  arbitration  to  adjust 
industrial  disputes  between  employers  and  employed."  It 
is  a  model  law  of  the  kind,  and  we  shall  briefly  describe 
its  chief  provisions. 

It  provides  that  upon  tlie  application  to  the  Court  of 
Common  Pleas  for  a  county  of  four  employers  and  forty 
workmen,  or  of  an  employer  of  forty  workmen,  together 
.with  the  latter,  the  court  shall  issue  a  license  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  board  of  arbitration  within  the  county,  and 
for  the  trade  represented  by  the  applicants.  The  board 
created  under  this  license  shall  consist  of  an  equal  number 
of  employers  and  workmen,  not  less  than  two  on  each  side, 
and  shall  continue  in  existence  one  year.  Its  officers  shall 
consist  of  a  chairman,  a  secretary,  and  an  umpire,  the  latter, 
as  well  as  the  two  former,  being  chosen  by  the  board  itself. 
The  duties  of  the  umpire  shall  be  to  act  after  disagree- 
ment is  manifested  in  the  tribunal  by  failure  during  three 
meetings  to  adjust  differences;  and  his  award  shall  be  final 
and  conclusive  upon  matters  submitted  to  him  in  writing, 
and  signed  by  the  whole  of  the  members  of  the  tribunal, 
or  by  parties  submitting  the  same.  The  members  of  the 
tribunal  receive  no  compensation  for  their  services,  except 
such  as  may  be  paid  them  by  voluntary  subscription.  A 
room  in  the  county  court-house,  however,  is  provided  for 
them  as  a  meeting-place,  and  light  and  fuel  arc  furnished 
them  free.  Attorneys-at-law  or  other  agents  of  either 
party  to  the  dispute  are  not  permitted  to  appear  or  take 
part  in  any  of  the  proceedings  of  the  tribunal,  or  before 
the  umpire.  If  the  award  in  any  dispute  is  for  a  specific 
sum  of  money,  it  may  be  made  a  matter  of  record  by  fil- 


234  THE    LABOR    PRODLEM. 

ing  a  copy  of  such  award  in  the  Court  of  Common  Picas  of 
the  county  in  which  the  board  is  sittinj^.  When  so  enter- 
ed for  record  it  shall  be  final  and  conclusive,  and  the  proper 
court  may,  on  motion  of  any  one  interested,  enter  judgment 
thereon ;  and  when  the  award  is  for  a  specific  sum  of 
money,  may  issue  final  and  other  process  to  enforce  the 
same. 

The  Pennsylvania  law,  generally  known  as  the  "  Wallace 
Act,"  which  was  passed  in  1  883,  is  the  first  piece  of  legis- 
lation in  this  country  practically  indorsing  the  principle  of 
voluntary  arbitration.  The  law  simply  gives  oflBcial  birth 
to  the  tribunal,  and  invests  it  with  power  of  investigation, 
of  disputes  where  they  are  voluntarily  submitted.  The  sub- 
mission of  all  questions  under  the  law  being  purely  volun- 
tary, and  the  awards  having  no  legal  or  compulsory  force, 
its  principal  value  is  in  giving  character,  official  bearing, 
and  system  to  tribunals  acting  under  it.  Its  sessions  and 
proceedings  are  under  the  eye  of  the  public.  Bills  pro- 
viding for  voluntary  arbitration  are  now  pending  in  Iowa, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Massachusetts. 

In  England,  since  1824,  there  have  been  in  force  three 
statutes  providing  for  arbitration  in  industrial  pursuits. 
Under  them  tribunals  with  compulsory  powers  and  proc- 
esses were  created,  but  they  still  remain  dead  letters.  La- 
borers and  capitalists  alike  avoid  them,  preferring  to  settle 
their  differences  by  means  of  boards,  whose  findings  have 
merely  the  force  of  a  fair  and  intelligent  judgment.  Ac- 
ceptance of  such  judgment  is  entirely  voluntary,  but  it  is 
seldom  rejected.  All  the  experience  and  history  on  this 
question  is  uniformly  to  the  effect  that  the  only  successful 
arbitration  between  Labor  and  Capital  in  the  past  has  been 
purely  voluntary.  Mr.  J.  D.  Weeks,  in  his  report  on  arbi- 
tration in  England  to  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  said, 
"  The  large  number  of  differences  that  have  been  settled  by 


TRADES-UNIONS    AND    ARBITRATION.  235 

arbitration  in  Great  Britain  in  the  last  eighteen  years  have 
all  been  voluntary  in  their  submission  and  in  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  award."  Prof.  W.  S.  Jevons,  the  eminent 
economist,  referring  to  arbitration,  said,  "All  available 
evidence  tends  to  show  that  voluntary  boards  of  arbitra- 
tion must  be  purely  voluntary  bodies.  ...  In  all  proba- 
bility success  will  be  best  obtained  in  the  settlement  of 
trade  disputes  by  keeping  lawyers  and  laws  as  much  at  a 
distance  as  possible.  There  must  be  spontaneous,  or  at 
least  voluntary  approximation  of  the  parties  concerned. 
It  is  a  question  not  of  litigation,  but  of  shaking  hands  in 
a  friendly  manner,  and  sitting  down  to  talk  the  matter 
over.  The  great  evil  of  the  present  day  is  the  entire  dis- 
sension of  the  laborer  and  the  capitalist ;  if  we  once  get 
the  hostile  bodies  to  meet  by  delegates  around  the  same 
table,  on  a  purely  voluntary  and  equal  footing,  the  first 
great  evil  of  dissension  is  in  a  fair  way  of  being  overcome." 
Edward  Trow,  Esq.,  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  Board 
of  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  for  the  Manufactured  Iron 
Trade  of  the  North  of  England,  in  a  recent  letter  to  the 
editor  of  this  book,  said  :  "  Trades-unions  were  the  result 
of  oppression  on  the  part  of  the  employers,  whose  acts 
compelled  men  to  organize  in  self-defence,  and  after  their 
formation  we  had  many  very  severe  conflicts  between  Capi- 
tal and  Labor,  in  many  cases  such  conflicts  inflicting  misery 
and  suffering  on  thousands  of  helpless  wives  and  children, 
and  ruin  upon  employers.  The  result  of  these  labor  wars 
in  no  case  proved  who  was  in  the  right,  but,  ending  in  vic- 
tory for  the  strongest,  left  the  trade  demoralized  and  para- 
lyzed, and  created  hatred  in  the  hearts  of  the  defeated,  who 
accepted  defeat  with  a  stubborn  determination  at  the  first 
opportunity  of  taking  their  full  revenge.  Arbitration  was 
the  result  of  the  efforts  of  the  late  Mr.  J.  Kane  and  other 
trades-union  leaders  who  saw  the  evil  effects  upon  trade  and 


236  THE    LABOR    PRODLEM. 

the  trading  communit_v  of  tlie  barbarous  system  of  strikes 
and  lock-outs,  and  in  1869  delegates  representing  the  work- 
men in  the  Nortli  of  England,  acting  under  the  advice  of 
Mr.  Kane,  and  employers  of  the  district  acting  under  the 
advice  of  Mr.  D.  Dale,  met  together  and  decided  to  establish 
a  board  of  conciliation  and  arbitration  at  which  both  parties 
could  meet  together,  discuss  freely  and  fully  every  ques- 
tion, bring  the  light  of  reason  to  bear  upon  all  and  every 
point  of  difference  that  might  arise,  and  create  a  feeling  of 
confidence  between  employers  and  employes.  From  1869 
up  to  the  present  the  board  then  established  has  continued 
to  exist,  and  during  the  whole  period  it  has  been  a  boon 
and  a  blessing  to  employers,  employes,  and  the  whole  dis- 
trict. In  prosperous  or  inflated  times  it  has  prevented 
men  from  taking  undue  advantage,  and  insures  the  con- 
tinuance of  work  in  depressed  times ;  it  has  prevented  un- 
just employers  from  taking  undue  advantage  of  workmen, 
and  compelled  them  to  prove  by  facts  before  an  indepen- 
dent arbitrator  the  justice  of  their  demands,  and  I  have  no 
hesitation  in  stating  that  the  benefit  and  success  of  the 
system  of  conciliation  and  arbitration  for  settling  disputes 
over  the  old  and  barbarous  system  of  strikes  and  lock-outs, 
as  proved  by  the  history  of  the  North  of  England  board, 
fully  establishes  the  utility  and  adaptability  of  the  system, 
and  no  parallel  can  be  found  in  the  history  of  trade,  at  any 
period  previous  to  1869,  where  disputes  have  been  settled 
so  advantageously,  or  such  good  feeling  has  existed  between 
employers  and  employes.  But  to  make  arbitration  suc- 
cessful there  must  be  mutual  confidence,  a  determination 
to  be  guided  by  facts,  and  both  employer  and  employes 
must  in  honor  accept  and  carry  out  every  award,  favorable 
or  otherwise.  I  feel  convinced  we  have  not  yet  reached 
the  millennium  of  trade,  and  that  we  shall  continue  to  pro- 
gress ;  and  the  ultimate  result  of  trades-unions  and  arbitra- 


TRADES-UNIONS    AND    ARBITRATION.  '237 

tion  teachings,  aided  by  the  superior  education  now  given 
to  working-class  children,  will  be  productive  co-operation 
and  industrial  partnership,  when  every  man  employed  will 
have  a  direct  interest  in  the  labor  he  performs,  when  the 
profits  will  be  more  evenly  and  justly  distributed  between 
Capital  and  Labor,  caste  in  a  great  measure  destroyed,  the 
gulf  between  Capital  and  Labor  bridged  over,  and  we  shall 
have  fewer  Rothschilds  and  fewer  paupers." 

Contrary  to  the  impressions  of  many,  there  has  been  no 
more  active  force  in  society  than  trades- unions  in  advo- 
cating and  sustaining  the  system  of  peaceful  arbitration  be- 
tween workmen  and  employers.  It  is  an  article  of  the  con- 
stitution of  almost  every  labor  association  in  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  to  advocate  in  every  dispute  a  sub- 
mission to  peaceful  adjustment;  and  it  is  this  influence 
that  has  made  voluntary  arbitration  a  settled  question  and 
a  practical  institution  in  England.  In  his  work  on  "Arbi- 
tration between  Capital  and  Labor,"  Mr.  Ryan  only  ex- 
presses a  general  conviction  when  he  says  that  "  the  trades- 
unions  are  a  powerful  assistant  to  honest  and  thorough 
arbitration,  as  well  as  to  a  just  examination  of  the  dispute. 
Their  systematic  method  of  collecting  and  preserving  the 
statistics  of  labor  makes  the  information  within  their 
knowledge  very  important.  They  are  the  natural  channels 
to  direct  the  arguments  and  force  of  the  figures  of  wages 
before  a  tribunal  of  arbitration.  Again,  they  are  invalu- 
able as  one  of  the  influential  factors  in  i)rcvcntiiig  the  re- 
pudiation of  an  award." 

Judge  Rupert  Kettle,  of  England,  who  for  ten  years  de- 
voted most  of  his  time  to  arbitrating  industrial  disputes, 
says  that  he  foimd  in  the  trades-unions  a  most  valuable 
adjunct  to  popular  sentiment  in  confirming  and  accepting 
an  award.  Mr.  Mundella  had  to  admit  some  time  ago 
that  arbitration  lost  all   its  force  ami  all   its  virtue   unless 


238  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

tlierc  were  trades-unions  for  the  employers  to  deal  with. 
The  employers  must  have  some  responsible  organization  to 
deal  with.  It  is  an  encouraging  sign,  in  this  connection, 
that  the  working-men  desire  the  passage  of  a  law  by  Con- 
gress giving  the  trades  and  labor  unions  the  right  to  be- 
come chartered  under  the  general  laws  of  our  government. 
Their  reasons  may  be  briefly  stated :  The  laws  written  and 
now  in  operation  to  protect  the  property  of  the  capitalist 
and  the  moneyed  class  generally  are  almost  innumerable, 
yet  nothing  has  been  done  to  protect  the  property  of  the 
working-men — the  only  property  that  they  possess,  their 
working-power,  their  savings-bank,  and  trades-union;  and 
they  ask  that  their  existence  as  organizations  may  be  legal- 
ized, not  for  the  purposes  of  strikes,  but  for  such  reasons  and 
objects  as  have  been  recognized  in  England  and  France. 
Mr.  John  Jarrett,  of  the  Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron 
and  Steel  Workers,  in  his  testimony  before  the  Blair  Com- 
mittee said  he  believed  that  if  there  was  a  national  law 
whereby  trades- unions  could  be  incorporated,  instead  of 
having  to  take  out  a  special  charter  in  the  State  where  the 
rolling-mill  is,  it  would  be  better  for  all  concerned. 

With  a  view  of  ascertaining  the  opinions  of  a  few  repre- 
sentative men  on  the  subject  of  the  national  incorporation 
of  trades-organizations  as  a  means  of  rendering  practical 
some  form  of  legalized  arbitration  of  differences  between 
Capital  and  Labor,  the  following  questions  were  submitted  : 

1.  The  national  incorporation  of  trades-organizations? 

2.  The  desirability  of  legalized  arbitration  of  diSerences 
between  Labor  and  Capital  ? 

Joseph  D.  Weeks,  Esq.  of  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  the  Pioneer  Advocate 
of  Industrial  Arbitration  in  tJie  United  States. 

"  I  can  see  not  the  least  objection,  but  everything  de- 
sirable, in  the  incorporation  of  trades-organizations;  and  if 


TRADES-UNIONS    ANU    ARBITRATION.  2.39 

anything  is  to  be  gained  by  making  these  organizations  na- 
tional I  see  no  objection  to  it.  I  have  usually  found,  how- 
ever, that  there  is  a  strong  objection  to  incorporation  in  the 
ranks  of  labor.  It  is  an  impression  very  prevalent  that 
an  incorporated  body  must  make  certain  statements  which 
might  at  times  be  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  labor. 
This,  however,  could  be  avoided.  I  have  no  faith  or  con- 
fidence in  trades-organizations  brought  into  existence  on  the 
spur  of  the  moment  and  for  temporary  purposes.  The 
only  trades-unions  that  dare  be  fair  and  just  are  those  that 
are  strong  in  numbers  and  in  financial  ability,  and  have  a 
past  to  preserve  and  a  future  to  care  for. 

"  2.  As  to  legalized  arbitration,  I  have  not  the  least  con- 
fidence in  it.  I  do  not  believe  it  can  be  made  a  success  in 
countries  in  which  the  genius  of  people  and  institutions  is 
similar  to  England  and  the  United  States.  Where  the 
question  involved  is  one  as  to  the  interpretation  of  past 
agreements  and  payment  for  work  already  done,  the  ques- 
tion is  a  question  for  the  courts,  and  here  legal  arbitration 
might  be  of  some  value;  but  where  the  questions  involved 
relate  to  future  contracts,  legal  arbitration  is  not  of  the 
least  value.  The  measure  of  success  in  arbitration  under 
such  circumstances  is  the  consent  of  the  parties  to  the  issue, 
and  it  is  beyond  the  power  of  courts  or  law  to  in  the  least 
degree  compel  the  acceptance  of  awards." 

Hon.  Frank  A.  Flower,  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  and 

Industrial  Statistics  for  Wisconsin. 

"  I  fail  to  discover  the  propriety  of  the  first  proposition. 
Each  State,  as  I  understand  it,  grants  charters  and  issues 
articles  of  incorporation  in  language  and  under  restrictions 
peculiar  to  itself.  This  is  a  prerogative  that,  in  my  hum- 
ble opinion,  should  never  be  taken  from  the  States.  Some 
trades- organizations  in  this  State  are  now   incorporated, 


240  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

and  all  may  be,  if  so  disposed.  The  fee  is  small,  and  ob- 
stacles none. 

"  The  second  is  a  more  vital  proposition.  Successful 
courts  of  arbitration,  such  as  you  propose,  can  never  be,  in 
my  opinion,  those  which  are  both  local  and  temporary.  In 
the  first  place,  strikes  and  the  matter  of  wages  are  frequent- 
ly controlled  by  a  power  residing  outside  of  the  State. 
We  have  here  a  nailers'  strike  that  has  been  going  on  for 
over  nine  months,  yet  it  did  not  originate  and  is  not  con- 
trolled in  Wisconsin.  In  the  second  place,  little  local 
courts  of  arbitration,  appointed  from  time  to  time,  as  occa- 
sion may  require,  will  hardly  be  free  from  the  prejudice 
and  suspicion  with  which  all  such  tribunals  are  more  or 
less  invested. 

"The  courts  which  you  propose  should,  I  think,  be  pre- 
sided over  by  our  present  federal  judges.  Such  a  plan 
■would  entail  little  or  no  extra  expense  upon  the  people, 
would  insure  a  uniform  rule  of  practice,  the  attendance  of 
recalcitrant  witnesses,  and  the  enforcement  of  judgments. 

"  For  years  and  years  arbitration  has  been  a  practical 
failure  in  Great  Britain,  and  I  fear  that  no  system  can  be 
devised  in  this  country  that  will  meet  the  expectations  of 
the  laboring  classes.  Anything  that  cannot  prevent  strikes 
and  lock-outs  can  hardly  be  expected  to  settle  them  satis- 
factorily after  they  have  been  inaugurated.  Nevertheless, 
if  those  who  toil,  and  who  too  frequently  are  underpaid  for 
their  labor,  desire  courts  of  arbitration,  I  am  in  favor  of 
providing  them.  And  if  we  have  any  at  all,  they  should 
be  under  federal  control,  so  as  to  be  uniform,  stable,  learned 
and  respected.  Our  State  constitution  provides  for  '  courts 
of  conciliation,'  but  I  do  not  think  they  would  be  either  as 
effective  or  as  nearly  satisfactory  as  tribunals  established 
bv  Conjrress  and  uniform  for  all  the  States." 


TRADES-UNIONS    AND    ARBITRATION.  241 

Hon.  Oscar  KocnriTZKT,  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statistics  and 
Infection  for  the  State  of  Missouri. 

"A  law  providing  for  a  national  incorporation. of  trades- 
organizations  appears  to  inc  to  be  a  new  departure,  and  as 
to  its  benefits  extremely  doubtful,  and  ought  to  be  very 
carefully  considered  before  being  adopted.  Why  should 
trades-organizations  be  incorporated  in  a  different  way  to 
all  other  corporations  and  companies  ?  Is  not  incorpora- 
tion under  our  State  laws  as  good  for  one  as  for  the  other  ? 
and  would  not  national  incorporation  of  trade-organizations 
have  the  tendency  of  bringing  all  labor  disputes  before  a 
national  tribunal  for  settlement?  I  think  it  would  be  a 
long  step  towards  unnecessary  centralization  of  power  in 
the  national  government.  The  large  extent  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  diversity  of  industrial  pursuits  in  the  vari- 
ous sections  of  this  country,  ought  to  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration, and  this  matter  be  left  to  the  States  to  be  taken 
care  of. 

"Legalized  arbitration  will  be  of  benefit,  provided  the 
power  of  boards  of  arbitration  is  restricted.  A  State  law 
providing  for  the  organization  of  boards  of  arbitration, 
upon  request  from  either  party  in  dispute,  would  certainly 
be  beneficial  and  accomplish  much  good.  The  person 
selected  by  the  State  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  such 
boards  of  arbitration  might  well  be  directed  by  law  to  be 
an  ex-ofjicio  member  of  each  board  organized,  as  his  expe- 
rience accumulated  by  being  a  member  of  each  board 
would  be  of  great  value  to  the  inexperienced  members, 
who  would  naturally  be  acting  in  a  new  role.  A  board  of 
arbitration  recognized  by  a  State  law,  but  voluntarily  called, 
selected  from  citizens  of  the  locality  where  the  dispute 
exists,  citizens  disinterested,  known  for  their  lionesty  and 
business  capacity,  will  be  sustained  in  the  decision  it  may 

IG 


242  THE    LADOR    PROBLEM. 

give  by  the  public  sentiment  of  tlie  community,  and  will, 
iu  nearly  all  cases,  be  accepted. 

"  Our  legislators  ought  to  be  careful  in  enacting  new 
laws,  and  thereby  complicating  the  questions  between  Cap- 
ital and  Labor  still  more.  The  prospect  is  fair  that  Capital 
will  soon  see  and  appreciate  the  advantage  to  be  gained  by 
a  division  of  the  profits  with  Labor,  and  with  the  increasing 
favor  in  which  co-operation  is  considered,  better  times  can 
be  expected." 

Hon.  Daniel  J.  Ryan,  ii^lto,  as  a  Member  of  the  Legislature,  pre- 
2xired  and  introduced  the  Ohio  Bill  providing  for  the  Creation 
and  Operation  of  Voluntary  Arbitration. 

"  1.  I  am  in  favor  of  the  national  incorporation  of  trades- 
unions.  As  they  are  co-extensive  in  existence  with  our 
national  territory,  they  should  operate  under  national  laws. 
It  will  tend  to  fix  their  liability  to  their  membership,  and 
to  increase  their  stability.  There  are  some  States  where 
they  cannot  become  incorporated,  but  it  is  not  so  in  Ohio. 
Their  vast  and  increasing  membership,  the  accumulation 
of  large  funds,  and  their  semi -benevolent  character,  all 
make  them  a  proper  subject  of  national  legislation. 

"2.  On  the  desirability  of  legalized  arbitration  between 
Capital  and  Labor  the  question  is  a  little  ambiguous.  If 
it  means  to  inquire  whether  a  system  of  arbitration  regu- 
lated by  law  in  its  operation,  and  providing  by  statute  for 
the  erection  of  boards,  their  membership,  method  of  selec- 
tion, etc.,  I  favor  legalized  arbitration  in  that  sense.  But 
if  it  means  arbitration  which  is  compulsory  under  the  law, 
and  whose  decrees  are  made  binding  in  every  case  by  stat- 
ute, it  strikes  me  that  such  arbitration  is  not  the  best  nor 
the  most  practicable.  In  fact,  all  evidence,  observation,  and 
experience  is  to  the  contrary.  There  can  be  no  true  arbi- 
tration but  that  which  is  voluntarily  entered  into.     There 


TRADES-INIONS    AND    ARBITRATION.  1^43 

can  be  no  invostif^ation  of  tlic  differences  between  workmen 
and  their  employers  unless  both  join  for  that  purpose. 
You  can  see  that  such  arbitration  is  the  true  and  only 
method  of  settling  industrial  disputes.  Any  law  by  either 
party  that  can  drag  the  other  into  the  courts  or  into  aboard 
of  arbitration  will  certainly  be  inoperative;  for  after  the 
award  or  decision  is  given,  how  can  you  enforce  it?  There 
is  no  human  agency  known,  legislative  or  otherwise,  that 
can  compel  working-men  to  work  at  wages  that  do  not  suit 
them ;  neither  is  there  any  power  in  the  wit  of  man  to  de- 
vise a  law  that  will  compel  the  manufacturer  or  operator 
to  run  his  industry  if  he  does  not  want  to.  So  there  is  no 
use  talking  about  compulsory  arbitration.  At  present  there 
are  three  laws  on  the  English  statute-books  providing  for 
compulsory  arbitration.  There  has  never  been  a  single  case 
arbitrated  under  them.  Why?  Because  when  parties  are 
compelled  to  arbitrate  it  is  not  arbitration.  You  might 
just  as  well  talk  of  compulsory  charity.  However,  there 
are  some  awards  that  may  be  made  enforceable  at  law.  All 
those  relating  to  past  money  matters  and  contracts,  but 
never  decrees  as  to  existing  differences  on  a  future  line  of 
conduct,  may  be  carried  into  effect  by  law.  As  I  stated  in 
the  beginning,  I  am  warmly  in  favor  of  statutes  which  pro- 
vide a  system  of  arbitration.  The  principle  is  then  made 
operative  and  practicable.  The  boards  of  arbitration  thus 
constructed  become  public  and  semi-official  bodies.  Public 
sentiment  is  attracted  to  their  proceedings  and  awards,  and 
their  decrees  become  strengthened  and  approved  by  a  strong 
public  opinion,  wliicli  has  much  to  do  with  their  acceptance." 

Hon.  Frank  II.  Betton,  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statistics  for 
tlie  State  of  Kansas. 

"To  the  first  question  asked  I  must  return  an  allirmativc 
answer,  ami  will   try   briefly  to   state  my   reasons  for  the 


244  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

'  faith  that  is  in  me.'  Primarily,  the  wliole  tendency  of 
tlie  age  is  towards  consolidation.  For  the  last  twenty  years 
corporation  after  corporation  has  been  organized,  until  near- 
ly every  branch  of  business  is  more  or  less  represented  by 
joint-stock  companies  in  lien  of  the  old-fashioned  'firms.' 
For  instance,  the  Smith  &  Jones  Hardware  Company  has 
superseded  Smith  <fc  Jones,  dealers  in  hardware.  AVhile 
the  dry -goods  copartnership  of  Brown  &  Robinson  gives 
place  to  the  Brown  <fe  Robinson  Consolidated  Textile  Fab- 
ric Emporium.  Smith  <fc  Jones  or  Brown  &  Robinson  may 
own  all  the  shares  in  their  respective  companies,  and  usu- 
ally do  own  most  of  them.  Still  the  actual  number  of 
shares  are  designated,  and  the  laws  of  the  dry-goods  cor- 
poration are  substantially  the  same  as  the  laws  of  the  rail- 
road corporation. 

"  Tracing  this  tendency  of  the  age  to  its  source,  we  find 
that  it  came  into  being,  at  least  in  this  country,  with  the 
introduction  of  steam  as  a  motive  power,  the  rapid  multi- 
plication of  improved  machinery,  and  the  consequent  growth 
and  expansion  of  manufacturing  industries.  When  the 
fathers  framed  our  federal  constitution,  Mr.  Brown  was  the 
head  of  a  firm.  He  sat  in  his  counting-room  and  directed 
its  affairs  ;  he  was  personally  acquainted  with  his  employes, 
probably  had  known  most  of  them  from  boyhood,  possibly 
worshipped  at  the  same  altar  with  their  parents,  and  when 
Mr.  Brown  died  his  accumulations  were  divided  among  his 
heirs,  the  firm  disappeared  or  passed  into  other  hands. 
Likewise  Mr.  Smith  in  his  shop  knew  his  apprentices  and 
knew  their  fathers ;  they  were  neighbors,  and  oftentimes 
friends.  Death  ended,  or  at  least  greatly  changed,  the  par- 
ticular manufactory,  or  the  particular  mercantile  establish- 
ment. So,  when  the  laws  of  land  entail  were  prohibited, 
our  constitution  framers  had  provided  for  the  main  evil 
that  in  the  lifrht  of  their  aire  threatened  the  future  of  the 


TRADES-UNIONS    AND    ARBITRATION.  245 

young  republic.  Mr.  Brown  of  to-day  dies,  but  the  Brown 
Manufacturing  Company  keeps  right  on,  not  even  suspend- 
ing its  operations  long  enough  to  attend  Brown's  funeral. 
Rules  governing  the  conduct  of  the  establishinent  have  been 
made  by  the  able  superintendent,  whose  term  of  employ- 
ment and  the  amount  of  whose  salary  depends  upon  the 
amount  of  dividends  he  is  able  to  present  to  Brown  and 
his  partners,  or,  in  modern  parlance,  his  brother  share-hold- 
ers. The  '  hands '  possibly  never  saw  Brown,  and  regard 
him  witli  very  much  the  same  vague  feelings  of  awe  they 
award  the  Deity — a  power  capable  of  affecting  their  lives 
for  good  or  evil. 

"  Under  the  old  regime  the  generic  term  '  hand '  was 
practically  unknown.  Employers  knew  and  were  known 
by  their  employes.  Our  people  were  mainly  agriculturists 
and  merchants,  but  with  the  introduction  of  the  first  cot- 
ton-mill and  the  first  railroad  began  the  change.  At  first 
the  line  of  divergence  was  sliglit  and  unnoticeable.  The 
spindles  of  the  Lowell  mills  were  tended  by  Yankee  farm- 
ers' daughters,  and  the  management  looked  after  their  wel- 
fare, while  business  men  and  farmers  constructed  the  few 
miles  of  railway  that  constituted  their  'line'  with  money 
taken  from  their  own  pockets,  each  'share'  usually  repre- 
senting one  hundred  dollars  of  honest  money,  fully  paid 
up.  Fifty  miles  of  railway  represented  a  big  corporation 
in  those  primitive  days,  and  the  farmer  share-holders  met 
annually  at  some  central  point  on  the  line  and  personally 
deposited  their  ballots  for  the  directors  whom  they  chose  as 
their  agents  for  the  ensuing  year.  Still  these  railroads  and 
these  factories  were  corporations,  and  carried  the  seed  oqt 
of  which  has  grown  our  later  troubles,  and  which  sccni 
destined  to  eventually  revolutionize  our  entire  industrial 
system. 

"The  tendency  of  the  age  is  towards  the  c(inibitiatinn 


246  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

of  eacli  industry  f<>r  tlic  protection  of  its  special  interest. 
Nearly  every  class  holds  annual  state  and  national  conven- 
tions for  this  purpose.  I  notice  only  to-day  that  the  re- 
tail boot  and  shoe  dealers  of  the  United  States  have  organ- 
ized a  national  association,  and  provided  that  fonr  or  more 
establishments  engaged  in  this  trade,  located  in  the  same 
city  or  town,  may  form  a  subordinate  branch.  The  laws 
of  many  of  our  States  provide  that  five  or  more  persons 
may  organize  and  procure  a  charter  for  the  prosecution  of 
almost  any  enterprise  under  the  sun  ;  and  interstate  or- 
ganizations receive  national  recognition.  To  borrow  a 
phrase  familiar  to  boards  of  trade,  we  are  'long'  on  cor- 
porations. The  representatives,  or  at  least  the  supposed 
representatives,  of  money  are  recognized  and  indorsed  both 
by  the  States  and  the  nation,  and  are  authorized  to  combine 
for  specific  ends,  which  in  nearly  every  instance  can  only 
be  accomplished  by  the  employment  of  other  men's  muscle 
and  other  men's  skill. 

"  If  our  governments,  state  and  national,  recognize  the 
right  of  Capital  to  combine  for  the  purpose  of  employing 
labor  to  achieve  certain  results,  I  can  see  no  good  reason 
why  the  working  partner — the  chief  factor  in  the  achieve- 
ment— should  not  also  receive  governmental  recognition, 
and  be  authorized  to  name  what  in  his  judgment  should  be 
his  share  in  the  emoluments  to  be  gained.  If  the  sum 
named  cannot  be  mutually  agreed  upon,  the  bargain  would 
simply  not  be  consummated  and  the  chartered  company 
prove  barren  of  results.  The  bound  bundle  is  harder  to 
break  than  is  the  single  stick,  and  when  the  bundle  receives 
governmental  recognition  in  the  form  of  a  charter,  it  seems 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  its  chances  to  cope  with  that 
other  bundle  which  has  so  long  enjoyed  a  monopoly  in  the 
charter  business  will  be  perceptibly  increased." 


TRADES-UNIONS    AND    ARBITRATION.  247 


John  Cougher.  Esq.,  Assistant  Cornmissioner  Kansas  Bureau 
of.Labor. 

"Arbitration  to  be  of  ninch  benefit  should  not  only  be 
legalized,  but  provision  sliould  be  made  for  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  decision  of  the  arbitrators.  Man  is  endowed 
with  no  so-called  natural  rights  except  breathing,  sleeping, 
and  taking  nutriment;  all  others  aie  denied  from  associa- 
tia^is.  Among  the  latter  are  the  rights  of  producing  and 
accumulating  wealth.  The  rich  man's  millions  are  the  re- 
sult of  the  poor  man's  diligence  in  creating  values.  Nei- 
ther are  independent,  both  are  interdependent.  Their  suc- 
cess depends  upon  harmonious  association,  and  the  welfare 
of  the  community  is  the  result  of  both  parties  carrying  out 
their  mutual  obligations  in  harmony.  When  disagree- 
ments arise,  resulting  in  strikes,  lock-outs,  and  boycotts,  it 
is  the  duty  of  society  to  interfere  and  compel  a  settlement 
by  the  best  and  most  effective  method  known,  which  at 
present  is  recognized  as  legalized  arbitration.  Both  parties 
are  under  obligations  to  the  source  from  which  they  derive 
their  rights,  privileges,  and  protection.  Neither  of  the 
prime  factors  of  production — Capital  and  Labor — should 
be  permitted  to  indulge  in  a  destructive  strife  that  would 
bring  disaster  upon  the  community,  merely  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  a  selfish  advantage.  The  wealthy  should  learn 
that  the  safety  of  their  possessions  depends  upon  the  fair- 
ness with  which  they  treat  their  industrious  employes;  and 
it  is  the  duty  of  society  to  see  that  for  opportunities  con- 
ferred a  proper  regard  for  its  interests  should  be  returned. 
That  a  system  of  amicable  adjustment  can  be  arranged  that 
will  do  away  with  the  troubles  that  now  afflict  our  indus- 
trial system  docs  not  admit  of  a  doubt.  Jiut  in  order  to 
be  ofTcctive,  where  mutual  agreement  cannot  be  had,  coer- 
cion must  be  resorted  to.     The  fact  cannot  be  drnieil  that 


248  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

Capital  is  constantly  watching  for  opportunities  to  make 
exactions  upon  Labor,  that  a  surplus  of  the  latter  is  speedily 
taken  advantage  of  to  compel  a-lower  rate  of  recompense; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  Labor  never  loses  an  opportunity 
to  strike  at  a  weak  point  in  tiie  armor  of  Capital.  It  is  a 
never-ending  conflict  between  a  hungry  stomach  and  a 
plethoric  purse,  with  most  of  the  advantages  on  the  side 
of  the  purse, 

"  When  the  conflict  becomes  destructive  in  its  character 
why  should  not  society,  through  the  law,  step  between  the 
combatants  and  compel  a  peaceful  settlement  of  the  diffi- 
culty, just  as  it  does  in  cases  of  disagreement  of  any  other 
character.  To  deny  that  it  has  the  right  to  do  so  is  to 
deny  the  right  of  self-government  and  self-protection." 

Bev.  C.  R.  Henderson,  D.D.,  Detroit,  Mich. 

"1.  The  national  incorporation  of  the  trades-organiza- 
tions. My  thoughts  on  this  subject  are  not  fully  matured 
for  expression.  Generally  speaking,  I  am  in  favor  of  giv- 
ing to  the  organizations  of  laboring-men  privileges  at  least 
equal  to  those  given  to  corporations  of  capitalists.  It  was 
a  great  step  in  advance  when  the  Friendly  Societies  of 
England  received  legal  recognition.  I  would  not  favor 
giving  government  patronage  to  any  corporation,  but  sim- 
ply largest  liberty  of  social  action  while  the  public  peace  is 
conserved. 

"2.  It  seems  that  'legalized  arbitration  of  differences 
between  Labor  and  Capital '  must  come  soon.  The  mine 
owners  and  manufacturers  of  England  have  seldom  thought 
the  'state  of  trade'  justified  the  abandonment  of  child  la- 
bor and  other  iniquities  until  taught  by  statute.  There 
have  always  been  noble  capitalists  who  could  see  through 
the  mists  of  prejudice  and  custom  ;  but  a  small  minority 
can  make  a  reform  almost  impossible  by  holding  out.     Such 


TRADES-UNIONS    AND    ARBITRATION.  249 

reforms  must  generally  be  made  general  by  legislation,  in 
order  that  a  few  pig-headed  and  marble-hearted  men  can- 
not defeat  the  generous  impulses  of  the  majority.  There 
never  was  an  age  when  the  strong-minded  '  princes  of  in- 
dustry '  were  so  tender  and  considerate  as  now,  but  some- 
times even  a  large  majority  need  stimulus  and  help  from 
legislation.  Philanthropy  and  newspaper  discussion  did 
not  force  a  few  employers  to  put  up  fire-escapes  for  the 
protection  of  their  hands;  but  a  city  ordinance,  with  a 
penalty,  helped  tlie  recalcitrant  minority  to  be  humane. 
A  few  barbers  compel  all  the  rest  to  work  on  the  universal 
rest-day. 

"Legalized  arbitration  will  hasten  'profit-sharing,'  be- 
cause it  will  make  the  claims  of  wage-earners  more  respect- 
ed, and  more  closely  identified  with  the  interests  of  employ- 
ers. I  am  glad  to  see  evidences  on  all  liands  that  the 
reign  of  sheer  conipetition  draws  to  a  close,  and  that  the 
reign  of  voluntary  co-operation  dawns.  For  the  despotism 
which  masquerades  under  the  name  of  'socialism' — that 
kind  of  socialism  which  aims  at  absorbing  all  individual 
and  private  functions  in  an  all-powerful  State — we  have  a 
promised  substitute  in  co-operation.  Legislation  may  aid 
in  making  legislation  ultimately  unnecessary.  ]iut  the 
present  strained  relations  ought  not  and  need  not  be  per- 
petuated. For  the  socialism  of  Maurice  and  Kingsley  I 
have  great  respect." 

lion.  C.  V.  R.  Pond,  Commissioner  of  Labor  for  Michigan. 

"The  pertinent  question  of  the  hour  is.  How  shall  a  con- 
ference committee  or  a  court  of  arbitration  be  made  up? 
If  a  committee  of  wage -workers  would  meet  their  cm« 
ploycr  and  be  met  by  him  in  a  spirit  of  fairness,  with  a 
det<;riniMation  that  their  diflorenccs  should  be  amicably 
settled,  no  other  plan  would  need  to  be  suggested.     But 


250  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM, 

both  bfiiii^  interested  parties,  tliey  do  not  always  look 
upon  each  other  (as  they  should)  as  members  of  the  same 
business  family,  whoso  differences  should  not  go  beyond 
themselves.  If,  on  the  part  of  the  wage-worker,  a  commit- 
tee is  made  up  from  members  of  a  secret  organization  to 
which  they  belong,  and  that  committee  seeks  to  adjust 
existing  differences,  the  probable  chances  are  that  the  em- 
ployers will  not  meet  them,  and  in  many  instances  they 
would  he  justified  by  candid  people  in  their  refusal.  Such 
a  committee,  made  up  of  men  who  are  not  wage-earners, 
but  possibly  professional  politicians,  or  if  wage-earners,  not 
altogether  without  prejudice  against  the  employers  whom 
they  are  to  meet,  cannot  be  successful.  Two  of  the  longest 
and  most  costly  strikes  of  1885  in  Michigan  prove  this  po- 
sition to  be  true.  Employers  arc  willing  to  meet  wage- 
workers  honestly  interested  in  settling  differences  of  their 
fellow-men,  but  they  repel  the  approach  as  arbitrators  of 
men  who  are  known  as  demagogues,  and  therefore  the  foe 
rather  than  the  friend  of  the  working-men.  A  clause  in 
the  constitution  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  calls  for  a  settle- 
ment of  differences  by  arbitration.  We  believe  that  such 
a  desire  is  honestly  expressed,  and  that  any  plan  by  whicli 
a  committee  of  arbitrators,  satisfactory  alike  to  employer 
and  employe,  could  be  put  in  operation  would  by  that  or- 
ganization be  approved.  The  suggestion  has  nothing  new 
or  novel  in  its  construction  as  relating  to  a  system  or  plan 
for  arbitration,  and  yet  we  believe  that  in  all  cases  of  dif- 
ferences between  employer  and  employe,  after  failure  to 
settle  between  themselves,  and  before  a  strike  shall  be  re- 
sorted to,  the  subject  of  difference  should  be  submitted  to 
a  board  of  three  arbitrators,  whose  decision  should  be  ac- 
cepted by  the  parties  in  difference  as  final  and  satisfactory, 
without  prejudice  against  the  further  continuance  of  their 
business  relations.     The  appointment  or  selection  of  such 


TRADES-UNIONS    AND    ARBITRATION.  251 

board  of  arbitrators  slioiild  be  the  clioosing  of  one  person 
by  each  party  to  the  diflfercncc,  one  of  said  persons  to  be  a 
wage-worker,  and  the  two  persons  so  chosen  to  choose  a 
third  person.  If  the  two  representatives  of  employer  and 
employe  should  fail  to  agree  upon  a  third  person,  then  the 
two  representatives  should  be  dismissed  and  two  other  rep- 
resentatives chosen,  who  should  choose  a  third  person,  and 
thus  constitute  a  board  of  arbitration.  To  make  the  fore- 
going plan  effective,  legislative  action  has  no  part.  There 
must  be  an  understood  agreement  between  employer  and 
employe  at  time  of  arranging  for  season's  work,  that  should 
a  dilference  arise  between  them  relating  to  the  subject  of 
Labor  or  its  remuneration,  then  arbitration  as  above  shall 
be  the  agreed  remedy. 

"  I  have  said  in  the  above,  to  make  the  foregoing  plan 
effective,  legislative  action  has  no  part.  I  mean  by  that,  in 
bringing  about  an  agreement  no  legislative  action  is  neces- 
sary to  force  it.  Possibly  it  might  be  wise  to  compel  by 
law  the  fulfilment  of  tlic  agreement,  whether  the  above 
plan  is  practical  or  not.  I  believe  most  positively  in  arbi- 
tration as  the  great  remedy  for  all  troubles  between  Capi- 
tal and  Labor.  Slight  differences  are  often  the  cause  of 
great  troubles.  "Wo  want  a  system  of  arbitration  that  can 
be  applied  the  moment  disease  appears — something  that 
will  drive  it  away,  and  not  simply  heal  after  it  has  racked 
the  body.  If  legalized  arbitration  is  the  essential,  give  it  to 
the  public  at  once." 

J.  O.  "Woods,  Esq.,  New  York,  Secretary  of  tJie  Institute  of  Social 

Science. 

"  While  the  first  proposition  seems  a  wise  suggestion,  its 
acceptability  would  dc[)en(l  very  much  on  the  j)rovisi()ns  of 
incorporation.  Should  it  offer  exceptional  advantages  to 
those  who  might  avail  themselves  of  it,  others  would  objei-t 


252  THE    LABOK    PROBLEM. 

to  sncli  special  privileges,  as  they  do  now  to  those  granted 
to  corporations. 

"  In  reference  to  the  second  inquiry  :  workmen  would  be 
very  suspicious  of  industrial  legislation  under  the  present 
capitalistic  system.  Tiiey  feel  that  Capital  despises  Labor, 
enslaves,  oppresses,  and  cheats  it,  and  they  fear  its  tender 
mercies.  Hence  they  would  distrust  any  compulsory  arbi- 
tration. An  impartial,  competent  tribunal  might  be  very 
useful,  but  to  be  acceptable  it  must  be  organized  so  as  to 
command  the  confidence  of  workmen. 

"A  board  of  arbitration  would  be  useful  so  far  as  it 
might  allay  strife,  prevent  strikes,  and  continue  production. 
But  arbitration  is  a  mere  makeshift,  and  settles  nothing  per- 
manently. Suppose  it  to  award  three  dollars  wages  per 
day  instead  of  two  dollars.  The  effective  value  of  wages 
depends  upon  their  purchasing  power.  As  the  board  of 
arbitration  does  not  fix  the  prices  of  commodities  and  the 
cost  of  living.  Capital  may  raise  the  prices  to  meet  the  ad- 
vance of  wages,  so  that  three  dollars  would  buy  no  more 
than  did  the  two  dollars.  The  wages  must  be  again  ad- 
justed by  arbitration  to  the  cost  of  living.  Determining 
one  factor  settles  nothing  but  for  the  moment,  so  long  as 
the  other  factor  is  not  fixed.  To  maintain  the  equilibrium 
there  must  be  continuous  arbitration. 

"  Perfect  machinery  works  automatically  and  requires  no 
extraneous  aid  to  help  it  over  a  dead  centre.  So  our  eco- 
nomic machinery  will  not  be  perfect  until  it  works  without 
arbitration,  as  it  will  when  it  gives  to  workmen  the  actual 
or  equivalent  product  of  their  labor.  Let  Capital  remove 
the  social  disabilities  of  Labor  and  give  it  its  just  reward, 
and  there  will  be  no  strife  nor  strikes  between  them,  and 
but  little  need  of  arbitration.  The  warfare  will  never  cease 
between  them  until  justice  is  done." 


TRADES-UNIONS    AND    ARBITKATION.  253 


Hon.  L.  McHuGH,  Commissioner  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Sta- 
tistics for  the  State  of  Ohio. 

"That  trades-unions  sliould  be  incorporated  has,  with 
me,  long  since  been  determined  in  the  affirmative.  The 
reasons  leading  up  to  this  opinion  may  be  stated  thus  :  The 
mechanical  classes  are,  by  reason  of  their  poverty,  compelled 
to  leave  school  and  commence  work  at  an  age  that  scarcely 
admits  of  the  acquirement  of  the  rudiments  of  an  educa- 
tion. The  intellectual  cravings  of  the  American  mechanic 
require  food  as  well  as  the  body,  and  trades-unions  supply 
the  medium  for  its  requirement,  as  well  as  a  better  oppor- 
tunity for  procuring  raiment  and  subsistence  for  the  physi- 
cal man.  That  these  desiderata  are  largely  supplied  by 
trades-unions  no  one  familiar  with  their  workings  will  deny. 
Many  of  the  brightest  minds  in  Europe  and  America  ac- 
quired their  education  and  are  graduated  from  the  trades- 
unions  of  to-day. 

"  Trades-unions  are  not  only  educational,  they  are  large- 
ly friendly,  and  do  more  in  the  way  of  charity  than  they 
are  credited  with.  Even  in  the  most  depressed  of  times  it 
is  a  rare  thing  to  find  a  consistent  member  of  a  trados-union 
appealing  to  public  charity  for  assistance.  Well-organized 
unions  take  the  best  of  care  of  their  members,  and  secure 
to  them  the  highest  possible  reward  for  their  labor,  and  by 
reason  of  their  being  conservative  they  at  the  same  time 
secure  to  Capital  safety.  One  of  England's  greatest  men 
once  declared  that  'combinations  of  working-men  for  the 
protection  of  their  labor  arc  alike  recommended  by  reason 
and  experience.'  The  Duke  of  Argyle,  in  his  'lleign  of 
Law,'  gave  utterance  to  that  sentiment,  and  no  doubt  this 
opinion  was  founded  upon  truth,  and  resulted  in  the  ling- 
lish  Parliament  passing  the  'Trades-union  Ilcgistratiou 
Act.' 


264  THE    LABOK    PHOBLEM. 

"  All  -Listory  proves  that  trades-unions  were  a  large  fac- 
tor in  freeing  labor  from  the  slavery  of  the  'feudal  s.ys- 
tem.'  They  vastly  improved  and  benefited  English  labor, 
and  brought  about  their  industrial  independence  and  en- 
franchisement. That  trades-unions  protect  Capital  as  well 
as  Labor  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  nearly  all  the  disputes 
between  Capital  and  the  well-organized  unions  are  charac- 
terized by  an  entire  absence  of  violence  and  destruction  of 
private  property,  and  where  such  outrages  have  occurred  it 
can  be  traced  directly  to  the  unorganized  and  uneducated, 
of  whom  it  may  with  truth  be  said '  they  have  no  past  to 
conserve,  nor  future  for  which  to  provide.' 

"  Thorough  organization  of  trades  is  the  best  prevent- 
ive of  strikes.  As  an  illustration  of  this  the  record  of  ten 
of  the  leading  unions  in  England  may  be  cited,  viz. :  Amal- 
gamated Engineers,  Boiler-makers,  Iron-ship  Builders,  Iron- 
moulders  of  Scotland,  Steam-engine  Makers,  Amalgamated 
Carpenters  and.  Joiners,  Amalgamated  Society  of  Tailors, 
Operative  Bricklayers,  Operative  Plasterers,  and  London 
Society  of  Compositors.  These  ten  unions  number  154,000 
men,  and  expended  during  the  year  1884  over  $1,250,000, 
of  which  enormous  sum  just  six  per  cent,  was  expended  for 
strikes. 

"This  is  the  record  of  a  country  where  trades-unions  are 
legalized  by  law.  It  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  the 
trades-unions  of  the  United  States  would  take  advantage 
of  a  national  incorporation  law;  doubtless  many  of  them 
would;  but  that  societies  having  in  their  organization  so 
much  that  is  good  have  not  as  yet  received  the  sanction  of^ 
law  for  the  protection  of  their  funds  is,  to  say  the  least,  a 
reflection  upon  the  American  Congress. 

"  Compulsory  or  legalized  arbitration  (for  if  entered  into 
by  the  sanction  of  law  its  operations  will  be  compulsory)  will 
never  be  successful.     Men  of  means  wlio  are  able  to  re- 


TRADES-UNIONS    AND    ARBITRATION.  255 

spend  to  a  money  award,  if  such  should  be  the  decree  of  a 
board  of  arbitration,  will  never  engage  in  an  arbiti'ation 
with  any  oilier  than  a  party  equally  responsil)le.  With  le- 
galized trades-unions  the  situation  might  assume  a  different 
phase,  as  they  would  at  once  change  their  members  from  a 
condition  of  absolute  irresponsibility  into  a  body  corporate, 
who,  if  disposed  to  escape  from  a  moral  obligation,  could 
yet  be  held  to  an  accountability,  as  well  as  forfeit  their 
corporate  existence  under  the  law.  Even  under  a  condition 
such  as  this  legalized  arbitration  would  be  a  failure.  An 
agreement  to  arbitrate  requires  the  consent  of  two  parties, 
and  to  make  it  complete  each  must  be  in  a  position  to  en- 
force it  if  necessary.  No  manufacturer  can  be  compelled 
to  continue  in  a  business  where  he  is  losing  money,  and  no 
employe  can  be  made  to  work  against  his  inclinations;  and 
if  he  could,  no  manufacturer  at  this  day  would  be  silly 
enough  to  put  such  a  mandate  in  force. 

"  Voluntary  arbitratiou  has  and  can  be  made  successful, 
but  not  in  the  absence  of  organized  labor.  AVhere  trades- 
unions  have  reached  their  greatest  degree  of  perfect  organ- 
ization, there  arbitration  will  be  the  most  successful.  Com- 
pact organization  carries  with  it  the  power  to  control  its 
members,  and  by  that  means  enforcing  and  making  secure 
any  contract  they  may  enter  into.  Both  paities  being  or- 
ganized under  the  law  as  having  a  legal  existence,  would  at 
once  make  doubly  secure  the  decrees  of  boards  of  arbitra- 
tion." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

BY 

FRED    WOODROW,* 

Tlie  "Samaritan  of  Labor." 


SIDE-LIGHTS  ON  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

LOGIC    OF    THE    CRISIS. 

The  law  of  Cause  and  Effect  is  as  inexorable  in  govern- 
tnent  as  in  gravitation — it  takes  no  denial  and  gives  no 
escape.     All  progress  in  civilization  is  a  matter  of  moving 

*  Fred  Woodrow,  .lutlior  of  this  chapter,  writes  with  a  full  under- 
standing of  all  the  factors  entering  into  a  satisfactory  answer  to  the 
greatest  of  modern  questions.  He  has  seen  the  dark  side  of  a 
laborer's  life  to  such  an  extent  as  not  only  to  make  his  words  practi- 
cal, but  to  have  surrounded  himself  with  a  history  closely  akin  to 
romance.  The  following  "  thumb-nail  sketch  "  of  his  life  is  furnished 
by  a  friend : 

"  About  ten  years  ago  I  was  looking  through  a  freight  depot  for 
goods,  when  a  stranger  addressed  me,  asking  me  what  I  desired,  and 
forthwith  giving  me  all  necessary  information.  Such  unusual  kind- 
ness and  intelligence  astonished  me,  as  being  out  of  the  usual  line  of 
railway  officialism.  I  marked  the  man  from  that  hour,  and  embraced 
every  opportunity  to  cultivate  his  acquaintance,  thus  little  by  little 
gaining  a  knowledge  of  his  history,  and  the  virtues  of  a  unique  and 
uncommon  character.  Fred  Woodrow  is  the  son  of  a  British  dragoon, 
born  in  Ireland ;  on  one  side  coming  from  a  race  of  Hampshire  for- 
esters, on  the  other  of  the  Huguenot  exiles,  driven  from  France  at  the 
revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  He  was  left  an  orphan  at  an  early 
age,  in  which,  I  believe,  was  the  discipline  that  produced  his  unique 
character.      His  father  was  bedridden  for  four  years,  for  three  of 


SIDE-LIGHTS    OX    THE    LABOR    PKOBLEM.  257 

frmii  what  has  been  already  accomplished  to  what  yet  ic- 
mains  undone.  As  out  of  an  acorn  an  oak,  and  from  an 
egg  an  eagle,  so  the  progress  of  every  generation  has  its 

which  he  was  lockjawed,  nutrhnent  being  administered  by  means  of 
a  glass  tube,  through  a  brolvcn  tootii.  Tiic  boy  in  a  b.arraciv  iios- 
pital,  reading  daily  to  the  dying  trooper  of  the  grand  old  Book  tliat 
gave  hope  to  the  soldier,  and  fixed  tlio  tone  of  his  son's  life  and  sut)- 
seciuent  writitigs,  in  which  one  liears  tlie  tramp  of  tlie  old  prophets. 

"After  his  father's  death  in  Birmingham,  Ids  mother  obtained  an 
appointment  as  a  village  school-mistress  in  the  lowlands  of  East  An- 
glia,  through  the  influence  of  a  Pelliam,  one  of  whose  brothers  was 
saved  from  death  off  the  coast  of  Egypt  during  the  Napoleonic  wars 
by  the  widow's  brother.  The  mother  engaged  in  bread-winning,  the 
boy  developed  a  philanthropic  spirit  with  his  years ;  in  the  early 
morning  gathering  violets  in  the  sweet  English  lanes,  digging  daisies 
from  lawns  at  one  cent  an  hour,  and  at  sunset  following  the  sheep  to 
gather  the  wool  left  on  hawthorn  bushes,  to  obtain  money  for  char- 
itable purposes — a  Howard  in  a  pinafore ! 

"When  older  he  was  apprenticed  to  bookbinding,  where  in  daily 
contact  with  all  kinds  of  literature  he  accumulated  much  of  his  vast 
stock  of  knowledge.  But  here,  as  in  his  village  home,  the  instincts 
of  his  nature  brought  him  into  the  service  of  humanity.  lie  appeared 
on  the  stump  and  the  platform,  where  he  gained  the  sobriquet  of '  The 
Bold  Boy.'  It  was  said,  '  The  lad  is  as  blunt  as  Carlyle,  as  original  as 
Spurgeon,  and  as  uncompromising  as  John  Knox.'  Among  peasants, 
city  Arabs,  and  sohliers,  and  every  class  of  neglected  humanity,  he  was 
a  boy  Samaritan.  It  was  while  working  at  his  trade  he  wrote  the 
famous  'Kit  Tracts,'  which  have  gone  around  the  world  willi  the 
marching  regiments  of  an  Emjiire  whose  drums  f(jllow  the  sun — and 
in  succession  '  The  Rough  March,'  '  Charles  Bissett,'  and  '  The  Cross 
and  the  Camp.'  Of  military  instincts,  his  sympathies  followed  '  horse, 
foot,  and  dragoons'  with  unpaid  correspondence  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  embracing  in  its  volume  the  (iovernor-gencral  of  India  and  the 
liumbl(!  sapper  making  roads  in  the  Himalayas — perhaps  liie  one  sol- 
itary, modest  figure  in  history  that  from  a  workman's  bench  took  an 
interest  in  the  moral  welfare  of  the  ostracized  soldier.  Oft,  it  is  said, 
'  standing  among  the  tramping  chargers  of  departing  troop.s,  a  solitary 
figure  in  a  working-man's  garb — his  presence  unnerving  the  hardest 
veteran  as  tliev  filed  past — .sorrowing  most  of  all  that  they  would  see 

17 


258  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

vital  force  in  its  predecessor.  History  is  but  a  catalogue 
of  evolutions,  in  which,  notwithstanding  the  debris  of  em- 
pires and  the  skeletons  of  death,  the  furtherance  of  human 

tliat  kindly  face  no  more — ^the  face  of  one  who  had,  without  money 
and  witliout  price,  given  his  time  and  strengtli  for  their  welfare.'  He 
was  subsequently  engaged  as  the  almoner  of  a  famous  manufacturer, 
wlicn  lie  organized  some  of  tlie  agencies  for  the  benefit  of  Labor, 
which  have  since  made  '  Caroline  of  Carrow '  a  Dorcas  among  tlie  poor, 
and  a  living  example  of  the  only  possible  socialism.  Hard  work  told 
on  his  health — witli  the  living  and  the  dying  he  was  a  daily  and 
nightly  presence — till  the  blood  oozed  out  of  his  mouth.  To  save  his 
life  he  went  to  sea,  and  there,  as  on  shore,  where  he  found  a  man  he 
saw  a  brother — neither  race,  creed,  nor  calling  intercepting  the  course 
of  his  kindness.  There  are  sea-tramps  living  yet  who  are  mementos 
of  his  humanity,  as  shown  on  the  Spanish  main — the  waters  of  the 
Archipelago  and  the  drift  of  the  Dardanelles.  Next  we  find  him  in 
the  North  Sea,  the  cruising  ground  of  fishermen  and  storms,  and  then 
on  English  railroads,  hauling  a  rope  on  one  and  wheeling  a  truck  on 
the  other,  both  in  forecastle  or  freight-house  promoting  contentment, 
and  in  a  sea-cap  or  a  blue  blouse  the  same  Howard  of  his  boyhood. 
He  came  across  the  Atlantic  in  18*73,  his  first  night  in  Castle  Gar- 
den spent  in  watching  over  two  lone  Irish  lasses  who  had  no  money 
for  a  hotel,  but  were  content  to  sleep  on  a  bench  if  he  would  stay  to 
watch  beside  them.  He  found  employment  at  a  coal-mine  in  Penn- 
sylvania, at  the  time  when  the  Molly  Maguires  ruled  the  State.  Here 
he  wrought  with  his  shovel,  and  by  disinterested  kindness  averted 
threatened  death.  It  was  under  the  coal  breakers  he  chalked  on  a 
shovel  the  initial  lines  of  his  '  Ode  to  the  Nazarine,'  which  has  com- 
manded attention  in  this  country  and  in  India.  By  the  invitation  of 
an  ex-soldier  he  went  to  Canada.  Here  on  a  '  Bush  Farm,'  a  saw-mill, 
and  in  the  pineries,  ho  dug  up  stumps,  handled  planks,  and  swung  the 
axe.  Here  he  inaugurated  '  free  readings '  for  the  lumbermen,  and  on 
one  occasion  gave  a  lecture  in  a  remote  school-house,  standing  on 
one  leg,  the  boot  of  the  other  being  cut  through  a  few  days  before 
with  an  axe. 

"  We  find  him  next  on  a  homestead  in  Nebraska,  plougliing  with 
oxen  and  shelling  corn  with  his  hands.  Here  was  penned  that  piece 
of  poetic  prose  since  printed  as  '  The  Sunday  Bell.'  The  grasshopper 
plague  drove  him  East  for  bread  and  work,  his  books  and  clothing 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  259 

good  and  tlie  perfectness  of  its  civilization  follow  uner- 
ringly, as  a  temple  rises  to  its  top  stone  above  the  tem- 
porary scafEolding.  The  most  advanced  races  of  this  cen- 
tury are  but  the  sequence  in  freedom  and  prosperity  of 
their  ancestors,  who  died  at  the  plough  tail  that  their  chil- 
dren might  sing  at  the  sickle.  January  comes  before 
August.  The  freedom  of  conscience,  the  right  of  the  suf- 
frage, the  majesty  of  the  law,  have  evolved  from  such 
fires  as  made  smoke  of  human  bones  at  Sraithfield,  and  red 
clay  of  such  as  fell  at  Marston  Moor  or  Bunker  Hill.  Then, 
as  now,  men  were  perplexed  as  to  the  best  methods  of  ac- 

in  an  artillery-bag  given  him  by  a  soldier  he  had  saved  from  suicide, 
and  his  bed  a  hammock,  given  him  by  a  sailor  he  had  bought  out  of 
service  in  the  English  navj-.  Ills  journey  was  near  three  hundred 
miles,  and  he  had  made  it  memorable  by  a  delicious  piece  of  verse,  pub- 
lished as  '  The  Break  o'  Day.'  lie  found  employment  in  railway  serv- 
ice in  Dcs  Moines,  where  I  met  him,  and  where  he  wrote  the  well- 
known  letter  on  the  railway  strike,  called  'The  Missing  Coupling,' 
perhaps  the  first  public  advocacy  of  arbitration  in  strikes  published 
in  Central  Iowa.  Here  his  opportunities  for  kindness  were  many, 
and  their  use  for  a  railroad  man  rare.  His  provision  for  accidents, 
known  as  'Fred's  Pouch,'  deserves  universal  imitation,  while  his  at- 
tention to  the  needs  of  emigrants  going  westward  gave  his  name  a 
charm  by  many  a  camp-fire  as  far  as  the  '  Rockies.' 

"  His  dcvotedncss  to  an  aged  mother,  long  past  the  allotted  time 
of  three  score  years  and  ten,  who  has  shared  his  vicissitudes  on  sea 
and  land,  as  the  light  of  his  log-cabin  and  the  queen  of  his  shanty, 
on  the  prairies  of  the  West  and  in  the  forests  of  the  North,  is  rare 
in  modern  days  as  an  exemplary  instance  of  filial  faithfulness. 

"  The  knowledge  of  human  character — the  progress  and  needs  of 
education,  and  more  cs[)ecially  the  problem  of  Labor  and  Capital, 
have  used  his  pen  for  the  good  of  his  class.  A  pliiloso|)liic  student 
of  history,  he  lives  abreast  of  the  times ;  and  pre-eminently  practical, 
what  he  says  has  the  merit  of  soinid  sense  and  strong  language.  He  is 
a  cosmopolitan  writer,  with  readers  in  Hoston,  Chicago,  and  Calcutta.  I 
know  of  no  man  so  thoroughly  capable  of  forging  missing  couplings, 
with  which  to  connect  and  unify  tl>e  interests  of  Labor  and  Capital." 


260  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

complishing  tlieir  reforms,  but,  as  a  miner  sees  gold  in  tlie 
quartz  before  it  is  put  in  the  snielting-pot,  so  ail  men  tliat 
Lave  faith  in  the  Ilight  see  the  issue  as  the  old  prophets 
saw  the  Messiah,  To-day  we  have  the  same  call  for  faith 
and  duty.  This  age,  as  all  others,  has  its  problem.  It  is 
the  outcome  of  all  others  that  preceded  it,  and  as  moment- 
ous as  any.  The  harmony  of  Labor  and  Capital,  the 
rights  and  rewards  of  industry,  the  claims  and  security  of 
investment,  the  lines  of  each  that  avoid  collision,  the 
virtues  that  prevent  anarchy  and  dissipate  discord — these 
are  the  problems  to  be  worked  out  on  the  slate  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Education  is  revolutionizing  all  old  con- 
ditions. There  is  brain  at  the  man-end  of  a  pickaxe,  and 
thinkers  are  driving  mules  and  making  shoes.  The  serf- 
dom that  existed  in  ignorance  of  the  alphabet  and  the 
multiplication  table  is  dying  out,  locates  their  solution  in 
the  heart  as  well  as  the  head,  and  gives  to  the  great  ques- 
tion of  this  age  the  gravity  of  a  crisis  involving  regenera- 
tion or  revolution.  The  industrial  conflict  as  between  La- 
bor and  Capital  is  but  a  phase  in  the  universal  agitation 
that  reaches  the  altar  and  shakes  the  throne.  No  age  in 
history  vibrates  as  this  in  which  we  live.  Science  has 
revolutionized  conditions.  Electricity,  steam,  and  printing 
annul  distance  and  time.  Change  and  transition  are  every- 
where and  in  everything;  and  the  task  of  intellect  and  the 
trust  of  virtue  lies  in  securing  the  best  results  by  the  best 
methods.  To  the  leading  nations  in  civilization  the  crisis 
is  not  a  matter  of  monarchies,  but  men — the  recognition 
and  guidance  of  the  aspirations  that  are  heard  in  a  coal- 
mine and  felt  at  the  bench  and  the  forge. 

THE    LAW    OF    COMBINATION. 

In  the  science  of  civilization  as  in  that  of  physics  com- 
bination is  a  primal  law.     Its  beginning  has  no  date,  and 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  261 

its  continuance  no  end.  In  a  lump  of  coal  and  a  mount- 
ain, in  a  family  and  an  empire,  it  is  the  same  eternal  verity 
— that  affinities  arc  the  strings  that  tie  the  world  of  matter 
and  of  mind  together.  Atom  to  atom,  and  man  to  man, 
is,  was,  and  ever  will  be  an  everlasting  law.  The  primitive 
man  for  companionship  ami  protection  evolved  the  kinship 
of  a  tribe  and  a  nation.  Mind  co-operated  in  council, 
muscle  in  labor,  and  as  the  one  learned  to  command,  the 
other  learned  to  obey.  As  these  two  lines  have  diverged 
or  come  in  collision,  the  vices  of  power  and  of  servitude 
have  produced  anarchy  and  revolution,  as  in  historical  par- 
allels Caesar  had  his  Brutus  and  Charles  his  Cromwell. 
What  we  have  of  political  or  religous  liberty  is  in  obe- 
dience to  this  law.  xVbiisc  of  power  and  repression  of 
right  have  begotten  the  blood-hounds  of  bigotry  and  bat- 
tle, oppression  or  resistance  being  in  ratio  with  the  com- 
bination of  either  side.  In  tacit  and  sometimes  blind 
keeping  with  this  law  men  have  joined  hands  to  rule  or  to 
reform.  In  this  age  combination  is  a  science.  The  era 
of  organization  has  come.  Intelligence  fuses  masses  into 
units.  Wc  are  running  into  lump.  Individualism  soaks 
into  societies.  Wc  reproduce  in  modern  life  the  clanship 
of  the  ancient,  and  the  representative  of  a  lodge  is  the 
forecast  of  more  force  than  the  marshal  of  old  empires. 

We  have  to  accept  this  fact,  with  all  that  it  signifies  for 
good  or  for  evil,  with  this  provision — that  its  power  in  both 
directions  is  limited  according  to  its  virtues  or  vices.  Nei- 
ther history  nor  science  has  record  of  any  force  but  has  its 
correctives  and  opposites ;  and  in  civilization  it  is  as  sure 
that  the  migfitiest  combination  on  earth,  when  corrupt  and 
oppressive,  disintegrates  and  dissolves,  as  it  is  that  a  snow- 
flake  melts  in  the  sun.  The  inch  and  the  ounce  do  not 
count  in  moral  f(jrces ;  the  majorities  of  right  are  not 
made  by  counting  noses.     'I'lie   rich   corporation   ;iiiil   tli<' 


2G2  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

laborers'  union  in  this  matter  stand  on  a  common  basis, 
justice  being  blind  to  the  difference  between  broadcloth 
and  corduroy. 

Accepting  this  logic,  we  see  in  the  combinations  of  Cap- 
ital and  Labor  a  natural  law  and  a  continuous  corrective. 
Each  has  its  duties  and  its  rights.  As  two  dollars  can  buy 
more  sugar  than  one  dollar,  so  in  all  enterprises  that  de- 
velop our  industries  and  hire  more  help,  a  corporation  of 
moneyed  men  are  more  effective  in  combination  than  in 
individualism.  To  average  common-sense  this  is  plain,  and 
hence  it  follows  that  such  corporations  are  as  necessary  to 
human  progress  as  is  a  crow-bar  in  a  quarry.  As  two  men 
can  oppose  wrong  with  more  effect  than  one,  and  a  com- 
bined use  of  reason  secure  redress  and  reform,  so  on  the 
same  line  of  principle  a  labor  organization  is  as  just  and 
natural  as  that  of  Capital,  protection  on  each  side  a  neces- 
sity, according  to  the  present  condition  of  things.  Unions 
are  not  crimes  against  society  unless  made  agencies  of 
wrong  or  oppression ;  a  bricklayers'  club  and  a  chamber  of 
commerce,  are  equal  needs  in  a  common  civilization,  bo 
the  difference  what  it  may,  in  grammar  or  in  shoe-leather. 

THE   MORALE   OF  CAPITAL. 

Capital  is  a  means  to  an  end ;  its  value  is  in  its  use.  It 
is  discretionary  with  its  possessor  to  keep  it  in  a  stocking 
or  put  it  into  a  lottery,  as  he  may  happen  to  be  a  miser 
or  a  fool.  It  may  be  much  or  little — a  million  in  stocks, 
a  dollar  in  peanuts — its  virtues  and  vices  not  according  to 
its  proportions,  but  its  use  or  abuse.  As  a  constructive  and 
commercial  force  it  is  stronger  than  kings  or  armies.  With 
a  dollar  as  with  a  drop  of  water  combination  is  power,  as 
an  aggregate  of  dimes  or  drops  are  necessary  to  run  a  gov- 
ernment or  turn  a  water-wheeL  In  the  right  use  of  this 
principle  men  and  nations  prosper,  as  in  its  abuse  the  law 


SIDE-LIGIITS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  263 

of  retribution  pronounced  the  sentence  of  judgment  and 
death.  The  wealth  of  a  nation  or  a  man  cannot  keep  one 
from  decay  or  the  other  from  the  headache  when  the  vices 
of  either  are  ahead  of  their  virtues.  Had  old  Rome  had 
morals  as  well  as  money,  the  Goth  had  never  spit  in  the 
Pantheon ;  and  had  France  kept  its  virtues  with  its  francs, 
less  of  human  heads  had  fell  in  the  executioner's  basket. 
By  laws  remote  as  the  ownership  of  a  field  or  a  flock,  the 
possession  of  wealth  has  come  about  by  dint  of  energy  or 
skill  on  the  part  of  some  man  or  body  of  men.  The  means 
used  may  have  been  in  some  cases  violent  and  dishonest — 
the  wolf  may  liave  got  a  margin  on  mutton  by  means  of 
its  teetli — but  the  law  holds  good  that  superior  force,  be  it 
good  or  evil,  has  given  the  much  to  the  few  and  the  little  to 
the  many.  The  inheritance  of  wealth  even  by  a  fool  does 
not  affect  the  logic  of  superiority  that  originally  made  or 
even  stole  it.  In  accepting  this  truth  we  must  also  admit 
that  there  is  a  distributing  force  in  our  social  economy  by 
which  no  man,  or  any  race  of  men,  has  ever  yet  put  a  pad- 
lock on  the  world's  exchequer.  In  families  and  nations 
absolute  monopoly  is  rendered  impossible — a  spendthrift 
son  or  a  debauched  empire  unable  to  keep  the  financial 
Jonah  without  a  vomit,  while  the  tastes  and  luxuries  that 
grow  out  of  wealth  are  so  many  arteries  in  the  social  body 
by  which  what  circulates  under  a  crown  finds  its  way  to  a 
ploughman's  shoe.  Again,  the  ever-changing  levels  of  hu- 
man condition  from  beggar  to  prince,  and  prince  to  beggar, 
make  the  wealth  of  the  world  in  one  sense  a  common  prop- 
erty. As  the  abuse  of  riches  ends  in  their  loss,  so  the 
right  use  of  the  same  is  as  necessary  to  modern  civilization 
as  wind  to  a  ship  or  steam  to  a  locomotive.  The  stock- 
holder and  the  corporation  have  become  essential  factors 
in  enterprise  and  progress ;  they  represent  the  means  by 
which  wc  light  the  night  with  (•lectri(;  stars,  span  the  con- 


2G4  THE    LADOR    PROBLKM. 

tincnts  with  steel  rails,  fetch  the  golden  quartz  and  iron  ore 
from  the  bowels  of  the  planet,  and  put  the  granaries  of  one 
latitude  into  the  cupboards  of  the  next — the  luigest  agency 
of  modern  times,  but  subject  as  all  other  agencies  to  life 
or  death,  according  to  right  or  wrong  doing.  It  has  no 
salvation  in  its  proportions — millions  cannot  count  in  mor- 
als. It  may  have  the  power  of  a  Ctesar,  and  die  with  the 
worms  of  a  Herod.  Its  abuse  produces  discontent,  despair, 
and  revolution ;  pauperism  may  crawl  in  the  track  of  its 
wheels,  and  the  hopes  and  wages  of  a  State  fall  at  the  click 
of  its  scissors,  and  the  masses  that  should  rule  with  the 
ballot  resort  to  the  bludgeon.  On  the  other  hand,  when  on 
the  line  of  justice  and  humanity,  it  moves  with  other  agen- 
cies of  civilization  to  the  higher  planes  of  purpose  and 
prosperity.  In  this  is  its  strength.  Reviewing  its  past  it 
is  moving  with  the  age.  The  code  of  public  morals  and 
the  force  of  public  opinion  are  becoming  factors  in  its  ex- 
istence. It  cannot  live  in  the  nineteenth  century  and  re- 
new the  spirit  of  the  dark  ages.  It  may  run  into  gigantic 
rings  and  corporations,  but  "  thus  far  shalt  they  go  and  no 
farther."  We  are  progressive  enough  to  check  abuses,  and 
to  limit,  if  not  to  prevent,  the  growth  of  moneyed  monarch- 
ies, always  provided  people  and  rulers  are  not  saturated 
with  a  common  selfishness.  In  that  case  trouble  and  dis- 
asters are  inevitable,  and  some  of  it  might  be  spared  if  Cap- 
ital always  recognized  the  difference  between  a  man  and  a 
mule,  and  kept  the  ten  commandments  among  its  money- 
bags. 

THE    MORALE    OF    LABOR. 

Work  is  one  of  the  primal  conditions  of  human  life. 
The  first  man  with  his  spade  in  the  primitive  Eden  was 
the  initial  idea  of  labor.  Its  equivalents  were  in  keeping 
with  his  needs ;  its  hours  and  its  honors  regulated  by  the 
sun  and  his  own  sonl.    What  he  did  was  honored  by  how  he 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    TROBLEM,  265 

did  it.  This  original  idea  is  now  as  then  a  basis — truth  ; 
and  notwithstanding  present  bccloudiucnts  and  nialfornia- 
tions,  is  yet  an  opal  in  the  day,  and  gold  in  the  quartz. 
Work  is  not,  as  many  suppose,  restricted  to  the  use  of  a 
pickaxe,  the  hammer  of  a  forge,  or  the  tail  of  a  plough; 
it  is  everywhere,  and  more  or  less  known  to  every  one.  It 
is  ordained  that  all  faculties  and  parts  of  our  common  nat- 
ure have  to  exercise  the  strength  that  tires  and  the  toil  that 
exhausts  ere  we  own  an  ounce  of  mental  or  moral  muscle 
and  bone.  In  this  sense  we  are  all  alike  in  the  leathers  of 
a  common  harness.  There  may  appear  to  bo  an  inliiiite 
distance  between  the  pen  of  a  president  and  the  broom  of 
a  crossing  sweeper,  but  in  fact  each  in  its  place  is  a  cor- 
relative of  the  common  truth  and  the  common  duty — the 
dignity  we  attach  to  the  one  and  the  false  shame  to  the 
other  but  questions  of  social  opinion  and  etiquette  —  the 
sarcasm  of  history  sometimes  shaking  the  bran  out  of  our 
pulpits  by  reversing  our  code  of  honor,  as  in  the  case  of 
Grant,  the  tanner  of  Ohio,  became  the  head  of  a  republic. 

There  is  a  false  sentiment  among  us  regarding  this  mat- 
ter that  keeps  on  its  lips  the  old  Judaic  sneer,  "  Is  not  this 
the  carpenter's  son  ?"  It  poisons  and  distorts  our  concep- 
tion of  honor  and  true  dignity.  So  we  lift  a  hat  to  an 
aristocratic  rake,  and  pass  without  notice  the  grander  man 
than  he,  who  has  blisters  on  his  hands  but  none  on  his 
character.  Even  in  the  temple  of  God,  the  reverence  for 
jewellery  and  silks,  cologne  and  real  estate,  shuts  off  for  a 
back  seat  and  a  cold  welcome  the  poorer  worshipper,  who, 
drivitig  rivets  six  days  in  the  week,  forgets  neither  his  clean 
shirts  nor  his  duty  on  the  seventh.  The  prevalence  and 
magnitude  of  this  mammon  worship  and  shame  of  servi- 
tude is  one  of  our  most  momentr)us  perils.  It  saps  the 
fabric  of  society ;  it  builds  a  wall  where  Heaven  had  nev- 
er laid  a  brick.      Manhood  on  both  si<k's  is  demoralized — 


266  TIIK    LABOR    TROBLEM. 

the  one  begets  tyrants,  the  other  sycophants  —  each  of 
which  are  a  silent  sign  of  some  coining  relapse  when  so- 
ciety, to  regain  its  original  levels,  falls  into  temporary  an- 
archy. To-day  we  see  among  our  youth  of  both  sexes  a 
veritable  epidemic  of  so-called  ambition  to  escape  all  hard 
toil  and  grasp  the  "  soft  snaps  "  of  office-work.  You  may 
find  young  men  and  young  women  by  the  hundreds  who 
are  ashamed  to  carry  a  market-basket,  and  who  see  in  the 
commonest  duties  of  life  a  task  for  which  their  hands  are 
too  white.  There  is  glory  in  a  necktie  and  shame  in  a 
trade.  This  social  malady,  as  before  said,  is  on  the  increase, 
and  three-fourths  of  it  proceeds  from  the  false  idea  of  work 
pervading  society.  In  the  older  eras  of  civilization  the  ex- 
istence of  this  spirit  was  in  accord  with  the  ethics  of  gov- 
ernments and  morals.  The  Roman  lord  and  his  slave  were 
but  apples  of  different  sizes  on  the  same  tree  till  the  Goths 
shook  them  off  into  his  basket ;  but  in  the  era  of  Christian- 
ity, in  which  all  men  are  brothers,  and  all  kinds  of  work 
sublimated  in  the  grand  old  name  of  duty,  the  shame  of 
servitude  is  an  anomaly,  and  its  obliteration  a  solemn  ne- 
cessity. 

This  chain  cannot  rattle  forever  on  the  hands  of  freemen. 
""  The  dignity  of  labor  "  is  not  a  catch  phrase,  but  an  eter- 
nal verity.  It  may  blacken  in  a  mine  and  blister  at  a  fur- 
nace ;  it  may  be  roughly  clad  and  not  up  to  the  etiquette 
of  mansion  manners  ;  but  in  what  it  does,  and  in  what  it  is, 
and  in  what  it  yet  is  to  be,  lies  the  safety  and  progress  of 
society.  The  writer  remembers,  when  working  as  a  hired 
hand  with  a  French  Canadian,  and  busy  scraping  a  hog  at 
the  scalding- tubs,  the  sturdy,  semi-Gallic  backwoodsman 
expressed  his  surprise  at  my  contentedness  at  my  task,  re- 
marking that  he  could  not  "make  it  out"  that  I  should  be 
as  earnest  and  cheei-f  ul  beside  a  scalding-tub,  or  digging  up 
stumps,  as  I  was  when  giving  a  lecture  in  the  olil  school- 


SIDK-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  2G7 

house — the  philosophy  of  the  thing  was  to  him  a  myster)-, 
and  moreover  a  novelty.  lie  was  there  and  then  instruct- 
ed that  it  was  not  the  work  that  made  the  man,  but  the 
man  that  made  the  work,  and  that  duty  recognized  no 
distinction  in  its  "  spirit  between  one  kind  of  work  or  an- 
other." lie  gave  me  his  hand,  all  blood  and  bristles,  and 
acknowledged  the  principle  to  be  the  only  one  that  gave 
dignity  to  work.  I  hold  to  this  doctrine  still,  and  that  in 
its  inculcation  lies  one  of  the  regenerating  elements  of  the 
Labor  dithculty.  In  this  higher  morale  of  labor  is  its 
emancipation  and  its  future. 

COMPENSATION    AS    A    BASIS    OF    PROSPERITY. 

The  social  fabric  is,  in  its  structure  and  intent,  a  unit. 
In  the  interdependence  of  its  parts  it  is  as  a  body  with  its 
many  members  unified  with  a  common  vitality.  The  mi- 
nutest atom  of  humble  life  and  the  loftiest  Alp  of  human 
greatness  are  alike  factors  in  what  we  call  society.  This 
fact,  as  unchangeable  as  the  multiplication  table,  makes  the 
rights  and  welfare  of  the  individual  the  concern  and  inter- 
est of  all.  In  this  broad  but  vital  sense  there  is  no  wall 
between  the  palace  and  the  hovel,  nor  but  a  fictitious  value 
on  the  difference  between  him  who  wears  broadcloth  and 
he  who  thanks  God  for  a  day's  work  and  a  dollar  pair  of 
blue  jeans — the  gifts  of  mind  and  the  virtues  of  character 
the  only  distinction  between  one  man  and  another  on  the 
broad  basis  of  justice. 

The  man  has  not  yet  been  born  who  is  so  isolated  or  de- 
tached from  the  commonwealth  of  human  interests  that  his 
wrongs  have  no  vibration  beyond  the  chords  they  strik<;. 
We  arc  but  a  vitalized  chain  on  which  the  tooth  of  the  file 
and  the  tap  of  the  hammer  is  heard  along  its  links.  It  fol- 
lows as  a  sequence  that  where  one  part  or  class  strains  or 
oppresses  another,  the  one  that  sours  the  milk  spoils  his 


268  THE    LABOIt    PROBLEM. 

own  butter.  Oppression  is  not  yet  absolute.  It  is  far  from 
being  an  old  bone  or  a  fossil.  True,  it  cannot  use  a  brand- 
ing-iron, or  a  slaver's  rawliide,  or  put  a  man  in  a  dungeon 
without  cause ;  but  it  can,  by  fraudulent  and  selfish  meth- 
ods of  compensation,  bring  him  to  corn-meal  and  a  soup- 
bone,  and  a  home  with  the  rats  in  a  cellar  and  the  spiders 
in  a  garret.  There  are  too  many  pay-rolls  made  out  by 
the  Rule  of  Cheapness  and  not  that  of  Adequate  Compen- 
sation ;  in  the  so-called  Gospel  of  Business  any  method 
being  justifiable  that  can  secure  a  dollar's  worth  of  work 
on  the  basis  of  a  dime — the  ninety  cents  going  into  a  vault, 
and  the  ten  into  a  red  herring  and  a  loaf  of  bread. 

Owing  to  this  Shylock  method,  we  see  wealth  going  to 
the  few,  and  poverty,  gaunt  as  a  wolf  and  lean  as  a  grey- 
hound, going  to  the  many.  Two  sets  of  evils  are  hereby 
inaugurated — the  one  of  luxury,  pride,  extravagance,  love 
of  ease  and  cake,  and  the  elegant  indifEerence  of  rouge  and 
kid  gloves  to  the  pallor  and  blistered  hands  of  labor — the 
very  spirit  and  the  self-same  trend  of  events  that  preceded 
the  fall  of  Rome  and  the  street  fires  of  Paris.  The  other 
evil — discontent,  class  hate,  the  ferocity  of  want,  the  dem- 
agogue, dynamiter,  assassin,  and  the  full-blooded  revolu- 
tionist, with  his  red  cap  and  sharpened  pike.  The  one  evil 
prepares  the  tinder,  the  other  fires  it. 

The  Right  of  Compensation  is  one  of  the  grave  issues  of 
the  industrial  conflict,  and  becoming  more  emphatic  and 
vital  as  we  see  such  modern  creations  as  "rings,"  "corpo- 
rations," etc.,  by  which  the  produce  of  the  farm,  the  pig- 
pen, the  potato  -  patch,  and  the  output  of  coal-pits,  iron- 
works, etc.,  are  manipulated  with  an  eye  to  stupendous 
profits.  Labor  being  squeezed  like  an  apple  for  the  last  drop 
of  its  cider.  The  call  for  a  lialt  is  heard.  Greed  may  fat- 
ten from  its  own  plate,  but  it  cannot  forever  steal  a  potato 
from  another.     The  monarchy  of  monopoly  hears  the  tramp 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PKOnLEM.  269 

of  a  Cromwell.  To  correct  the  abuse  and  acknowledge  the 
rights  of  combined  capital  is  the  question  of  the  times,  and 
to  guarantee  compensation  for  labor  a  phase  of  the  same 
problem.  There  is  no  law  in  any  code  but  the  unwritten 
law  of  God,  by  which  this  matter  can  be  adjusted.  There 
are  vital  issues  of  human  life  which  are  wisely  beyond  the 
jurisdiction  of  a  constable;  the  higher  planes  of  right-do- 
ing are  not  swept  by  the  janitor  of  a  court,  or  reached  by 
a  deputy-sheriff,  and  thus  the  life-spot  of  a  nation  is  out 
of  the  hands  of  Cajsar.  Man  is  a  self-damnable  animal. 
The  law  can  enforce  payment  of  dues  and  wages,  but  can- 
not frame  a  schedule  to  fix  them.  The  conditions  of  wages 
are  beyond  control ;  they  arc  of  the  kind  tliat  make  the 
tides  of  the  sea  and  the  changes  of  the  weather  beyond  a 
Canute  or  a  Blackstone.  Fluctuation  in  values  is  unavoid- 
able. 

The  value  of  a  watermelon  varies  according  to  crops  and 
competition,  though  it  took  as  much  sunshine  to  the  square 
inch  and  as  many  feet  of  mellow  soil  to  realize  ten  cents  on 
the  market  as  its  predecessor  did  for  three  times  ten.  In 
this  matter  the  farmer  that  grows  ten  thousand  melons,  and 
tiie  slioeblack  that  eats  but  one  in  a  sunimer,  alike  suffer — 
the  difference  being  only  a  matter  of  projxjrtion.  So  with 
Capital  as  with  Labor,  it  has  its  claim  for  compensation  ; 
and  when  it  fails  the  man  at  the  spout  of  tiie  pump  with 
him  at  the  handle  arc  at  a  common  loss  when  the  well  is 
dry.  With  this  understood,  the  relationsliips  of  money 
and  muscle,  and  the  adjustment  of  compensation,  would  be 
liarmonious  and  just  on  the  basis  of  conference — arbitra- 
tion or  co-operation. 

The  estimates  of  compensation,  as  things  are  to-day,  re- 
main on  a  private  slate,  and  are  absolutely  dependent  on 
the  humanity  and  justice  of  the  employer.  It  remains, 
however,  a  basis  law  of  pros|)crity  that  for  a  certain  ex- 


270  THE    LABOR    PliODLEM. 

pcnditurc  of  time,  strength,  and  labor  a  fair  and  just  rec- 
ompense must  be  a  rule,  and  not  an  exception,  not  over- 
looking the  grave  truth  with  which  we  started — that  the 
interest  of  the  individual  is  the  vital  concern  of  all — we 
cannot  ache  in  the  bone  and  not  suffer  in  the  flesh. 

HUMANITY    IN    BUSINESS. 

Humanity,  in  its  highest  sense,  is  a  grand  old  word.  It 
has  of  late  become  popular,  and  consumes  much  of  breath 
and  printers'  ink.  It  is  used  in  the  sale  of  soap  and  bitters, 
and  illumes  not  a  little  of  the  nonsense  heard  iu  ward  meet- 
ings and  political  orations — a  universal  label  on  all  potions, 
with  the  right  or  without  it,  going  down  the  modern  throat 
to  remove  a  tape-worm  or  secure  a  vote.  Be  its  abuse  what 
it  may,  its  significance  and  prominence  are  of  more  empha- 
sis to-day  than  ever  before.  It  is  one  of  the  vital  phases 
of  civilization,  breathing  more  deeply  of  the  Christian  veri- 
ties at  its  base,  and  has  developed  such  exponents  of  its 
spirit  as  Howard  and  Shaftesbury,  Elizabeth  Fry  and  Flor- 
ence Nightingale.  It  visits  the  battle-field  and  watches  in 
the  hospital,  meets  the  prisoner  at  the  jail  gate,  and  finds 
the  prostitute  mercy  and  a  home.  In  a  legislative  direc- 
tion it  protects  the  young  from  overwork  and  the  mature 
from  the  sanitary  sins  of  close  and  overcrowded  mines  and 
factories ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  inhumanity  in  industrial 
life,  like  the  old  Egyptian  lice,  crawl  yet  in  the  nineteenth- 
century  blanket.  Sentiment  in  business  is  practically  ig- 
nored as  out  of  place  and  suicidal  to  success — the  Golden 
Rule  a  blank  in  the  ledger  and  forbidden  jurisdiction  in  a 
pay-roll.  This  fact  of  itself  is  one  of  the  many  causes  that 
promote  discontent,  class  enmities,  and  the  evil  spirit  that 
broods  over  the  cockatrice's  egg  to  liatch  a  reptile.  It  has 
been  the  writer's  lot  to  see  this  evil  in  many  shapes  and 
places,  and  there  is  enough  of  it  yet  to  give  a  royal  right 


SIDE-LIGIITS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 


QVl 


to  some  corporations  and  men  to  a  scrape  on  the  fiddle  of 
that  Roman  gentleman  whose  violin  was  at  its  best  when 
the  ashes  of  Rome  made  sport  for  its  Nero.  This  may 
seem  a  grave  charge  and  strong  language,  but  I  am  con- 
vinced that  it  fails  to  gauge  or  even  profile  the  curse  that, 
like  leprosy  under  a  shirt-collar,  is  not  the  less  deadly  for 
its  decent  coverlet  of  clean  linen.  Ilumanity  is  needed 
more  than  law  to  heal  the  breach  in  industrial  relationships. 
I  can  better  illustrate  this  by  facts  than  epigrams.  Speak- 
ing to  a  railway  superintendent,  one  wet  day,  of  the  need 
of  a  few  shingles  to  shelter  the  freight-handlers,  he  gave 
me  in  reply  the  business  doctrine — that  it  might  be  well 
for  the  sheet-iron  being  then  unloaded,  but  as  for  the  men, 
if  they  got  a  wet  shirt  or  the  rheumatism,  it  was  not  his 
business  to  care,  as  men  were  cheaper  than  the  cost  of  more 
shingles.  Seeing  an  eminent  capitalist  once  on  the  same 
matter — one  of  his  men  dying  from  asthma  contracted  from 
exposure,  which  could  be  obviated  in  the  future  by  a  few 
planks  and  nails — he  saw  his  duty  and  did  it;  but  there  is 
a  grave  and  a  widow  left,  satirizing  the  lack  of  humane 
thoughtfulness  in  even  a  great  and  good  man.  From  that 
fact,  in  a  series  of  notes  prepared  on  labor  topics  for  the 
same  employer,  I  broached  to  him  the  somewhat  startling 
doctrine  that  compensation  for  neglect  and  accident  would 
yet  be  recognized  as  a  legal  requirement.  I  have  lived  to 
see  that  doctrine  incorporated  in  the  code  of  Great  Britain. 
I  advocated  this  principle  in  a  saw-mill  in  Canada,  where 
a  piece  of  board  and  a  few  nails  would  protect  the  work- 
men from  a  cog-wheel  or  a  saw.  The  proprietor  thought 
nie  a  "  fool"  and  a  "chicken" — such  sentiment  in  a  saw-mill 
was  outrageous  and  sickly.  A  few  days  after  I  saw  liiin 
leading  a  stalwart  Highland  Scotchman  to  a  wagon,  his 
right  hand  hanging  by  a  piece  of  skin  to  his  wrist,  taken 
off  by  an  unprotected  lath-saw;  his  eye  met  mine,  and  his 


272  THE  LABOR  ^ROBLE^^. 

face  reddened  to  his  ears — the  guilt  of  neglect,  like  tlio 
mark  of  Cain,  under  his  cap.  How  many  a  cripple  and 
invalid  have  lost  limb  and  health  by  the  old  business  prin- 
ciple that  the  sentiment  of  human  protection  is  too  costly, 
and  has  no  more  right  in  industry  than  a  bear  has  in  a  pair 
of  pants. 

This  evil  is  aggravated  by  its  adoption  among  employes 
and  understrappers.  Brutality  is  begotten  of  exainple,  and 
the  roustabout  of  a  steamboat  will  practise  on  his  compan- 
ion the  blows  and  the  bullyism  of  the  Mississippi  mate. 
Subordinates,  as  a  rule,  repeat  their  superiors'  methods,  and 
bark  or  bite  according  to  example.  Hence  we  see  over- 
seers and  bosses  selected  for  their  driving  power.  The  ca- 
pacity of  a  man  to  act  as  a  rawhide  and  a  tin  horn  may  be 
utilized  in  increasing  the  output  of  a  quarry  or  a  mine,  and 
in  some  cases  be  a  direct  and  absolute  need,  but  as  a  rule 
it  is  indicative  of  the  spirit  pervading  industrial  business — 
a  second-handed  kind  of  tyranny,  in  which  the  responsibil- 
ity may  be  deputized,  but  the  iniquity  a  matter  of  mutual 
partnership.  Tiie  writer  of  this  has  scars  on  his  body  that 
are  interesting  illustrations  of  this  kind  of  bossism — fat- 
tening on  sixty  dollars  a  month  for  the  qualifications  of 
profanity  and  heartlessness.  These  "  man-propellers  "  are 
the  scapegoats  of  corporation  sins — of  which  stockliolders 
may  be  ignorant,  but  as  their  agents  outside  the  nomenclat- 
ure of  beast  or  reptile.  There  are  a  thousand  and  one 
ways  by  which  industrial  wrongs  may  be  enlarged  or  ex- 
tinguished, on  the  basis  of  the  humanity  supposed  to  be 
under  a  human  breastbone — the  doctrine  of  non-responsi- 
bility a  liat-footed  heresy,  as  pernicious  as  communism,  and 
as  serious  a  menace  to  public  good — the  evil,  if  without 
the  stain  of  iniquitous  motive,  none  the  less  a  crime  as 
being  the  results  of  selfish  indifference.  This  spirit  is  one 
of  the  gravest  dangers  in  industry,  and  its  extinction  can 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  273 

only  be  from  moral  causes.  One  cannot  well  overstate  its 
consequences.  Time  fails  me  to  tell  of  manhood  pauper- 
ized, of  troubles  and  sufferings  beyond  number,  of  hates 
and  enmities  that  spawn  over  the  land,  and  of  conspiracies 
and  plots  that  prowl  with  the  midnight  rat  and  gnaw  the 
very  sills  of  civilization — to  catalogue  these  results  is  im- 
possible, though  one  thing  is  sure,  that  so  long  as  Human- 
ity is  ostracized  from  business,  the  industrial  conflict  will 
go  on,  in  spite  of  legislation  or  a  State  militia. 

PROVISION    FOR    BODILY    INJURIES. 

The  humanitarianism  of  the  last  decade  is  widespread 
and  fruitful.  It  is  the  output  of  ten  centuries  of  Chris- 
tianity— surviving  dogmas  gone  into  the  abyss  of  nothing- 
ness, and  the  influence  of  tripods  and  mitres  that  are  now 
kept  with  historic  swords  and  old  china  in  museums  and 
antiquarian  boxes  —  the  primal  idea  of  Christian  ethics, 
coming  along  with  unspent  volition,  and  giving  to  human- 
ity its  "  Hospitals  "  and  "  Homes,"  its  "  Refuges  "  and  "  lle- 
formatories,"  its  "Sisters  of  Mercy  "  and  "Knights  of  the 
Red  Cross."  The  Jericho  road  is  now  the  chosen  path  of 
modern  philanthropy.  This  awakened  interest  in  human 
need  is  an  epoch  in  the  evolution  of  man  and  morals.  The 
dainty  Roman  thumb  that  settled  the  butchery  of  a  wound- 
ed gladiator  on  the  sawdust  of  the  Colosseum  the  Goths  and 
the  Gospel  have  buried  by  the  Tiber,  and  Christendom  has 
in  their  place  the  grander  soul  of  such  lofty  types  of  hu- 
manity as  Florence  Nightingale,  Elizabeth  Fry,  and  the 
Howards  and  Coopers  of  modern  times.  Our  civilization 
throbs  with  charities,  and  it  seems  to  be  scarcely  jjossible 
to  suggest  even  a  remote  opportunity  for  the  cxliibition  of 
this  spirit — so  much  of  need  has  eaten  of  its  loaf,  and  so 
much  of  wrong  exposed  in  its  light;  but  there  is  a  corner 
yet  unvisited  and  a  want  unsupplicd,  except  in  isolated 

18 


2V4  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

cases.  I  refer  to  the  little  provision  made  for  the  imme- 
diate relief  of  bodily  injuries  that  are  of  daily  occurrence 
in  many  branches  of  industry,  and  figure  up  a  total  equal 
to  the  wounded  in  a  battle.  We  see  the  ready  ambulance 
and  the  waiting  surgeon,  even  in  the  military  picnic  of  a 
militia  camp,  where  a  contusion  or  a  sprain  are  but  remote 
possibilities ;  but  in  how  many  a  coal-shaft  or  caboose,  saw- 
mill or  factory,  can  be  found  even  a  rag  ready  for  a  bodily 
hurt?  and  we  number  more  of  these  in  a  year  than  "Wel- 
lington could  count  of  wounded  at  Waterloo.  In  personal 
experiences  this  lapse  in  humanity  has  taught  me  bitter  les- 
sons. Lumbering  in  the  North,  where  the  axe  and  the  saw 
shed  blood  every  day,  for  a  mashed  hand  a  piece  of  an  old 
shirt  was  the  only  appliance,  and  for  a  severely  cut  foot  but 
some  shoemaker's  wax  and  an  old  necktie,  and  men  had 
even  to  bleed  to  death's  door  ere  a  surgeon  could  be  reached 
miles  away,  through  the  pines  and  over  the  snow.  In  rail- 
way service  there  are  numbers  of  minor  accidents  that  could 
be  immediately  attended  to  if  appliances  were  kept  on  hand 
in  cabooses  and  freight-houses;  and  as  a  satire  on  a  huge 
corporation  it  was  left  to  a  roustabout  who  had  fractured 
a  rib,  crushed  a  foot,  mangled  a  finger,  and  dislocated  a 
knee-joint,  to  prepare  and  provide  a  leather  pouch,  in  which 
he  kept  open  to  all  linen  and  lint,  arnica  and  sticking-plas- 
ter, etc.  This  pouch,  popularly  known  as  "  Fred's  Pouch," 
is  a  piece  of  necessary  furniture  in  every  place  where  acci- 
dents are  possible.  It  is  part  of  the  duty  of  employers  to 
make  such  a  provision,  and  its  practice  would  not  only  bo 
beneficial,  but,  as  representing  the  spirit  of  care  and  tliought- 
fulness,  would  in  no  small  measure  help  along  the  harmony 
so  much  needed  in  industrial  relationships.  Humanity  vis- 
its the  plague-spots  of  pestilence  and  the  dens  of  criminals, 
and  there  is  standing-room  for  it  yet  in  the  shambles  of 
industry. 


SIDE-LIGUTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM,  275 


THE    NOMADS    OF    INDUSTRY. 

The  original  nomad  was  one  of  the  primal  germs  of 
civilization.  In  the  leathers  of  a  sandal,  or  on  the  back  of 
a  camel,  he  was  a  peregrinating  phase  of  a  Divine  Idea — 
an  instalment  in  fig-leaves  or  sheepskin  of  the  more  com- 
prehensive migrations  slowly  shaping  through  lapsing  cen- 
turies the  civilization  of  to-day.  The  Divine  Idea  without 
an  interlude  still  remains  in  force,  and  so  will  till  it  evolves 
its  deeper  purpose — the  Fusion  of  Races.  We  arc  now  in 
an  era  of  migratory  labor.  The  time  is  gone  when  a  coun- 
ty line  was  the  mimic  world  of  generations  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave.  The  old  fence-rail  is  taken  down.  The  cor- 
ner lot  has  merged  into  a  continent,  and  the  denizen  of 
a  tenement- house  finds  himself  the  citizen  of  a  planet. 
This  creeping  out  of  humanity  from  its  old  and  time-hon- 
ored shell  has  consummated  in  the  modern  exodus  of  races, 
and  is  sowing  the  solitudes  and  wastes  of  nature  with  the 
seed  of  nations  and  cities.  Modern  enterprise  has  been 
equal  to  the  task  of  utilizing  and  manipulating  this  gigan- 
tic movement,  and  by  every  conceivable  agency  turned  the 
human  current  here  and  there  as  best  suited  the  holders  of 
real  estate  and  stockholders  of  railway  lines.  In  natural 
sequence  the  fields  of  labor  multiply  and  the  centres  of  in- 
dustry are  continually  amplifying  their  resources  or  chang- 
ing their  base,  and  the  vast  army  of  workers  is  going  to 
and  fro  seeking  employment  and  bread.  It  is  in  this  par- 
ticular phase  of  migration  that  humanity  and  justice  are 
called  upon  for  the  statesmanship  of  the  occasion.  The 
systematizing  and  protection  of  migratory  labor  is  one  of 
tiie  new  and  later  duties  of  the  hour.  The  permanency  of 
employment  or  home  is  seldom  assured  to  the  working- 
class.  The  cap  of  the  nomad  hangs  over  his  head.  The 
census  of  men  who  have  wrought  fur  ten  years  in  the  same 


276  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

locality,  or  even  the  same  handicraft,  would  be  an  astound- 
ing revelation  to  some  of  our  economists  and  eulogists  of 
the  American  home,  and  a  grave  study  for  such  as  prate  of 
national  stability  and  consolidation.  We  have,  perhaps, 
more  rovers  to  the  square  mile  than  any  nation  on  earth — 
a  fact  that  on  one  side  bespeaks  a  wide-awake  and  energetic 
race,  but  on  the  other  the  homeless  vagrant  and  the  social 
Ilun.  The  nomad  is  a  future  problem.  As  it  is  in  an 
immediate  sense,  migratory  labor  being  a  necessary  condi- 
tion of  our  civilization,  its  abuses  and  needs  are  a  moment- 
ous consideration.  The  intelligence  office,  the  contractors' 
handbills,  advertisements,  and  subsidized  newspaper  state- 
ments, with  here  and  there  a  labor  sheet  that  at  its  best  is 
imperfect,  embraces  the  bulk  of  authorities  by  which  a 
workman  starts  on  a  journey  of  a  thousand  miles  for  work, 
in  many  cases  to  return  with  an  empty  satchel  and  very 
thin  shoes.  In  fact  we  have  reached  that  condition  of 
commercial  brigandage  where  it  has  become  a  lucrative 
business  to  deceive  and  mislead  migratory  labor.  In- 
stance :  last  summer  dodgers  were  scattered  in  Chicago, 
telling  of  a  new  Canaan  for  labor  in  a  Western  city — a 
golden  apple  waiting  to  drop  into  an  empty  basket  or  an 
open  mouth — the  truth  being,  to  my  personal  knowledge, 
that  the  whole  matter  was  as  fraudulent  as  a  forged  check, 
concocted  in  the  interests  of  a  few  contractors  who,  for  the 
purpose  of  reducing  wages,  wanted  a  surplus  of  men  to 
offset  some  hundreds  of  others  who  were  biting  their  nails 
for  want  of  something  else  to  do,  and  the  pauper  fund 
actually  overdrawn  at  the  county  court-house.  This  is  not 
a  solitary  instance — it  is  but  a  thread  in  a  huge  web  of 
monopolistic  greed,  in  which  corporations,  contractors,  rail- 
ways, and  numerous  other  spiders  fatten  on  the  labor  fly. 

Here  and  there  we  find  men  who,  in  a  small  way  and  on 
a  big  sign,  advertise  for  labor  wanting  employment.    I  came 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  277 

across  one  such,  slick  and  well-dressed,  and  with  a  newspa- 
per reputation,  who  held  out  to  me  the  bait  of  a  "  splendid 
situation  "  for  a  five-dollar  bill,  and  meanwhile  had  some 
half  dozen  others  on  the  same  string,  to  whom  the  situation 
was  forever  a  mystery  and  their  "  fiver  "  a  dead  loss.  There 
may  be  good,  honbst  men  in  this  business,  but  it  needs  to 
be  put  under  such  authority  and  supervision  as  to  guaran- 
tee its  rectitude.  It  is  to  the  classes  of  deception  named 
that  much  of  the  tramp  calamity  may  be  credited.  Hav- 
ing met  with  many  of  these  men  roaming  between  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  the  Missouri,  and  ascertaining  the  initial  causes 
of  their  wanderings,  the  majority  of  cases  were  traceable  to 
the  huge  confidence  game  above  mentioned — as  pestilent 
and  leprous  a  sin  as  ever  eat  into  the  soul  of  a  n^an  or  a 
nation.  A  remedy  might  be  found  in  the  locating  of  a 
labor  office  or  bureau  in  large  cities,  connected  and  com- 
bined with  such  societies  as  represent  Labor,  recognized 
as  a  reliable  and  representative  institution,  sustained  by  a 
small  fee,  keeping  on  file  all  necessary  information,  and 
having  the  facilities  by  telegraph  and  correspondence  of 
locating  chances  of  employment  and  acting  as  agencies  to 
supply  it.  Such  a  "  Samaritan  Lodge  "  in  every  centre  of 
industry  is  one  of  the  gravest  needs  of  Labor,  and  some 
Howard  of  the  race  may  yet  be  found  to  inaugurate  it. 
The  man  or  the  society  that  can  put  this  matter,  in  its  per- 
fect and  comprehensive  sense,  on  a  national  basis  will  de- 
serve the  gratitude  of  migratory  labor. 

THE    HOMES    OF    LABOR    A3    AFFECTING    ITS    SPIRIT. 

Sanitary  sins  cast  their  shadows  on  public  morals.  Bad 
air  discounts  virility  in  the  body  and  in  the  soul,  and  no 
sane  man  can  associate  its  concomitants  of  filth  and  squa- 
lor with  the  accessaries  of  virtue  and  prosperity.  Pure 
oxygen,  good  soap,  and  a  stout  broom  are  the  enemies  of 


278  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

disease  and  tlic  devil.  It  is  not  by  accident,  but  by  the 
eternal  fitness  of  things,  we  connect  cleanliness  with  self- 
respect,  and  dirt  with  crime.  The  darker  deeds  of  history 
— its  conspiracies  against  human  good  and  social  [)rogress 
— its  grosser  and  viler  forms  of  outrage  and  evil — have  to 
a  large  extent  germinated  in  dirt  and  bad  air.  Modern  in- 
vestigation has  thrown  considerable  light  on  this  unpalata- 
ble fact,  and  statesmen  and  moralists  alike  are  interested  in 
enforcing  sanitary  laws  for  purposes  of  national  health  and 
public  morality.  The  agitation  of  this  matter  in  England 
culminated  in  a  legislative  provision  for  the  inspection  and 
gradual  removal  of  unhealthy  dwellings  and  man -killing 
factories.  Fashion  and  wealth  caught  this  reform  inspira- 
tion, and  aristocracy  put  its  dainty  nose  into  the  slums  and 
rookeries  of  its  large  cities,  where  sanitary  neglect  was  pro- 
ducing a  generation  of  cripples  and  barbarians.  This  awak- 
ening of  public  interest,  if  not  comforting,  was  salutary. 

In  a  personal  experience  of  two  years  in  these  dens  of 
civilization  I  saw  much  to  dissipate  my  wonder  in  the  lapse 
of  social  morals  and  the  growth  of  sullen  but  bitter  discon- 
tent. Here  tired  labor  had  its  truckle-bed,  its  damp  and 
darkened  chamber,  its  rats  and  cockroaches,  its  poisoned 
atmosphere,  its  dwarfed  humanity,  and  be  it  said  not  a  few 
unfortunate  denizens  who  were,  in  aspirations  and  charac- 
ter, living  contrasts  to  their  surroundings  ;  but,  as  a  rule, 
it  was  here  one  met  with  the  fiercest  spirits  of  discontent 
and  the  ripest  passions  of  revolt  against  all  social  law  and 
order — cooped  up  in  their  dens  that  were  a  standing  sin 
against  civilization  and  human  right.  The  occupant  was 
not  to  blame  for  his  lodgings,  the  iniquity  of  that  was  in 
society  —  the  landlords  that  counted  their  rents  by  the 
number  of  heads  crowded  between  the  cellar  and  the  attic. 
In  localities  where  the  houses  were  decent  it  was  to  me  a 
matter  of  some  study  and  perhaps  surprise  that  the  tone 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  2/9 

of  self-respect  was  healthier — cheerfulness  and  content  j^en- 
iiine  realities,  and  morals  of  a  higher  grade,  though  the  ten- 
ants were  of  the  same  class  and  status  in  employment  with 
those  who  dwelt  in  the  slums.  I  believe  this  to  be  a  gen- 
era! exi)crience,  and  the  fact  it  indicates  enters  largely  as  a 
predisposing  cause  in  much  of  the  anarchy  so  rudely  shap- 
ing itself  in  our  crowded  cities  and  labor  conflicts.  Socie- 
ty has  sinned  against  its  constituents,  and  practically  ig- 
nored the  law  tliat  makes  a  man's  home  a  bond  for  his 
good  behavior.  In  this  comparatively  new  country  the 
large  amount  of  elbow-room  and  the  national  love  of  space 
have  to  an  unprecedented  extent  exempted  Labor  from  the 
packing  process  of  a  fish -box,  but  there  is  sin  enough 
against  sanitary  laws,  and  greed  enough  of  landlords,  to 
stimulate  our  social  discontent.  We  cannot  all  live  on 
prairies  and  mountains,  and  brace  up  our  exhausted  vitality 
with  sea-air  and  sunshine,  but  the  more  the  need  that  our 
homes  should  not  be  rented  coffins  and  our  workshops 
man-traps.  As  a  nation  we  need  not  suffer  from  want  of 
room,  and  there  is  no  need  to  put  society  in  architectural 
corsets,  but  modern  tendencies  have  that  trend.  We  are 
becoming  a  gregarious  people.  A  crowd  is  an  American 
paradise.  Anglo-Saxon  individualism  is  being  lost  in  the 
Gallic  system  of  aggregation.  The  boarding-house  and  the 
liotel  is  the  new  ideal  of  home,  and  as  we  multiply  in  in- 
dustries and  numbers,  and  so  long  as  avarice  is  our  national 
vice,  the  evils  of  man-packing  for  social  and  rental  reasons 
will  be  a  public  peril.  \Vc  are  legislatively  progressing  in 
sanitary  laws,  but  the  curse  of  politics  checks  their  enforce- 
ment. It  must,  however,  become  in  time  a  grave  concern 
that  in  imitating  the  rookeries  of  the  Old  World  we  do 
not  make  them  the  catacombs  of  the  New.  Philanthropy 
will  also  discern  its  duty  in  dealing  with  the  causes  of 
discontent  and  misery,  as  well  as  with  tiioir  riisultsr     In 


280  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

younger  days  wo  once  in.sislcil,  and  do  so  still,  tliat  tlic  time 
will  come  when  Christian  statesmanship  will,  by  means  of 
pure  air  and  whitewash,  make  a  flank  movement  on  bad 
morals,  and  that  the  homes  of  Labor  would  not  be  grouped 
in  indigent  corners  and  darkened  alleys,  but,  for  humane 
reasons  and  common  rights,  be  a  sharer  with  other  piles  of 
brick  and  stone  in  sunshine,  air,  and  respectability.  This 
Article  of  Faith  was  not  altogether  visionary,  and  will,  as 
conditioned  by  time  and  circumstance,  become  a  verity  of 
civilization.  Social  science  will  not  cease  its  work  till  ev- 
ery human  right  involved  in  its  functions  is  practically  in- 
dorsed. 

SOME    PRACTICAL    HUMANITIES. 

We  Lave  it  on  Supreme  authority,  as  forecasting  human 
conditions  to  the  end  of  time,  "The  poor  ye  have  always 
with  you  ;"  thus  there  can  be  no  possible  state  of  society 
in  which  there  will  be  no  occasion  or  use  for  the  charitable 
instincts  of  man.  The  Golden  Rule  is  not  for  a  sect  or  an 
epocli,  but  for  all  men  and  all  time.  The  want  of  its  spirit 
is  perhaps  outside  of  economic  conditions  the  greatest  need 
of  the  labor  world,  and  would  do  more  to  harmonize  its 
constituents  than  all  the  theories  and  paper  millenniums 
with  which  we  are  by  turns  entranced  and  disappointed. 
Modern  humanity  is  by  no  n)eans  insignificant,  but  it  has  a 
tendency  this  side  the  water  to  run  into  legislation,  as  if 
the  constable  could  be  made  a  substitute  for  the  humani- 
tarian. At  our  present  rate  of  speed  we  shall  soon  depend 
more  on  law  than  gospel.  Meanwhile  the  wounded  He- 
brew is  on  his  back  and  in  his  blood  on  the  Jericho  road, 
and  the  modern  type  of  Samaritan  getting  out  a  supcena 
and  calling  for  a  patrol-wagon.  Individual  responsibility 
cannot  be  deputized — our  own  conduct  the  particular  qual- 
ity by  which  we  are  judged;  and  in  this  grave  question 
of  labor  trouble  no  amount  of  law  can  offset  the  neglect 


SlUE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  281 

of  duty  or  the  lack  of  liumanity.  Every  practical  effort  in 
the  riglit  direction  deserves  notice  and  indorsement  as  a 
text-book  and  an  example.  These  are  our  guide-posts  to 
better  things,  and  a  living  finger  in  this  matter  counts  for 
more  than  a  thousand  pens.  In  surveying  the  cvery-day 
life  of  labor  we  see  much  that  is  unpleasant,  and  not  al- 
together removable ;  they  are  the  unavoidable  and  neces- 
sary adjuncts  of  life  that  mould  its  sterner  virtues  and 
discipline  its  character.  It  is  in  these  common  cvery-day 
conditions  that  we  find  the  scope  and  sphere  of  humanity 
in  employers.  Consider  for  a  moment  the  Tin-can  Brigade 
of  this  country,  wlio  eat  at  least  one  meal  a  day  at  their 
place  of  labor.  ^Yith  how  many  is  there  any  convenience 
provided  for  decency  and  comfort?  On  how  many  is  the 
key  turned  till  the  bell  rings  or  the  whistle  blows?  It  may 
not  be  a  hardship  or  a  wrong,  but  I  have  a  pleasant  recol- 
lection of  seeing  some  good  standing-room  for  humanity 
on  this  dinner-plank.  A  house  was  rented  near  the  mills, 
a  hydrant  fixed  below,  tables  and  seats  provided  in  the 
upper  rooms — everything  clean  as  good  soap  and  white- 
wash could  make  it.  Here  the  employes  could  have  their 
meals  with  clean  hands  and  in  comfortable  surroundings; 
and  added  to  this  a  mill-kitchen  where,  at  cost  price,  a  man 
could  call  at  noon  and  obtain  a  substantial  dinner  with  cof- 
fee, all  kept  warm  in  a  tin  can,  ingeniously  constructed  to 
combine  a  dish  and  a  coffee-pot.  Everything  was  of  prime 
quality — beef,  flour,  and  milk,  the  same  grade  as  used  in 
the  employer's  own  home.  There  was  uo  percentage  in 
this  to  give  a  mercenary  motive  to  this  humanity,  nor  was 
there  any  parade  about  it  in  the  way  of  ofiicialism  and 
cant.  It  was  a  simple,  straightforward  method  of  carry- 
ing out  the  Golden  Rule.  It  was  also  made  effectual  in  a 
reformatory  direction.  Many  of  the  men  lived  in  localities 
where  the  ale-house  was  a  temptation.     This  was  counter- 


282  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM, 

acted  by  the  employer  leasing  a  quantity  of  land  and  rent- 
ing it  in  small  plots  to  his  work-people.  I  have  a  lively 
recollection  of  keeping  an  old  toper  from  his  drams  by 
lielping  to  hoe  his  potatoes  in  this  patch,  especially  on  pay- 
days, when  it  was  his  practice  to  drink  thirty-five  pints  of 
beer  before  he  got  home.  These  plots  of  garden-ground 
were  not  only  good  for  cabbage  but  for  some  very  tough 
sinners. 

In  planning  for  the  good  of  these  adults  the  younger 
folks  were  not  forgotten,  Tiiere  was  a  host  of  these  em- 
ployed at  the  mills  whose  parents  were  in  all  cases  veiy 
poor,  and  in  a  great  many  degraded.  It  was  suggested 
that  these  ragged  urchins  should  be  encouraged  to  put  by 
a  weekly  pittance,  with  which,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  they 
might  feel  the  comfort  of  warm  clothes  and  stout  shoes. 
The  firm  gave  ten  per  cent,  interest  on  deposits,  which  ul- 
timately grew  into  large  proportions.  Thus  the  virtue  of 
economy  was  taught,  and  self-respect,  impossible  in  rags, 
stood  on  its  feet  in  unblemished  corduroy. 

The  young  and  unmarried  women  were  invited  once  a 
week  to  a  sewing-class,  where  material  at  cost  price  was 
provided  for  their  use,  and  a  knowledge  of  needle-work 
gained  in  making  their  own  dresses  and  their  brothers' 
shirts.  I  cite  these  few  instances  out  of  many  as  broad  in 
their  import  and  as  humane  in  their  intent,  to  show  that 
the  humanities  that  mould  better  feelings  and  meet  great 
needs  are  in  easy  reach,  and  likewise  point  out  the  shortest 
cut  and  the  surest  way  to  harmonize  the  relationships  of 
Capital  and  Labor. 

CONCOMITANTS  OF  CHEAP  LABOR. 

It  is  a  law  from  which  there  is  no  escape — that  every 
workman  reproduces  himself  in  his  workmanship.  Indi- 
vidualism is  present  in  every  output  of  skill  and  handicraft. 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  283 

and  man  writes  his  name  as  legibly  with  a  chisel  or  a  lathe 
as  with  pencil  or  pen.  It  is  this  incorporation  of  ourselves  in 
what  we  do  that  constitutes  the  only  dignity  and  the  only 
shame  of  any  and  every  kind  of  work.  The  employment 
that  commands  a  carriage  and  that  which  trundles  a  wheel- 
barrow are  in  this  matter  on  a  common  plane  of  honor  in 
the  democracy  of  industry  and  the  sight  of  God.  In  a 
commercial  and  national  sense  this  element  of  character  in 
business  is  at  the  basis  of  production  and  prosperity  for 
good  or  for  evil.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  reliabil- 
ity and  thoroughness  of  every  branch  of  industry  depends 
considerably  on  the  man  who  manipulates  the  material,  for 
in  a  thousand  and  one  ways  neglect  and  indifference  to 
results  may  counterbalance  even  the  virtues  of  good  steel 
and  sound  timber.  We  daily  read  of  such  catastrophes  as 
the  collapse  of  buildings,  the  fracture  and  fall  of  bridges, 
the  snapping  of  a  ship's  cable,  the  sudden  breakage  of  its 
machinery,  etc.,  all  these  things  of  course  possible  with  the 
best  of  workmanship,  but  in  many  cases  directly  traceable 
to  inefficiency  and  indifference.  As  these  "  casualties  "  re- 
peat themselves,  the  reputations  of  firms  and  nations  suffer, 
and  react  in  loss  of  trade  and  depression  of  industry :  the 
case  of  England,  for  example,  once  the  solitary  national  type 
on  the  globe  of  reliability  and  thoroughness  in  her  manu- 
factures. The  world  could  swear  by  an  English  nail  and 
fight  with  her  unrivalled  steel;  now  the  world  complains  of 
her  "rotten  iron,"  and  her  own  soldiers  of  useless  bayonets. 
Tills  evil  has  eaten  into  her  commercial  heart,  and  bids  fair 
to  be  her  sentence  of  industrial  death.  Coni|)etition  may 
enter  largely  as  a  cause  in  this  decay,  but  the  thinker  who 
reads  the  "  writing  on  the  wall "  sees  a  shrinkage  of  busi- 
ness as  in  ratio  with  the  shrinkage  of  integrity  and  good 
workmanship.  Underpaid  labor  and  seltish  cai)ital  are  the 
traceable  sources  of  this  industrial  calamity.      Low  wages 


284  THE    LABOU    rUOBLEM. 

and  inferior  work  go  together.  Said  an  employer  to  me, 
"  I  give  the  best  wages  I  can,  for  the  reason  that  the  same 
man  does  better  work  when  contented  tlian  he  can  do  when 
he  is  not."  Tliis  fact  is  in  line  witli  universal  experience, 
and  in  the  close  hot  race  of  nations  and  trades  for  suprem- 
acy and  markets  the  character  of  workmanship  is  coming 
to  the  front  as  the  supreme  factor.  We  see  already  new 
agencies  at  work,  in  which  taste  and  skill  are  being  brought 
out  of  rudimentary  conditions  into  comparative  perfect- 
ness,  and  thus  the  full  advantages  secured  of  national  apti- 
tudes for  industrial  purposes.  We  are  in  a  marketable 
sense  exchanging  the  old  brute  regime  of  forcing  trade 
by  soldiers  and  diplomats  for  the  democracy  of  brain  and 
skilled  handicraft,  by  which  the  utility  and  merit  of  our 
manufactures  are  their  best  advertisers;  and  in  doing  this 
wc  recognize  the  vital  idea,  that  as  the  worker  so  the  work- 
manship. Degrade  the  one  and  you  deteriorate  the  other. 
Pauperize  the  toiler,  and  the  leverage  is  lost  of  national  or 
industrial  elevation.  The  underpaid  and  underfed  of  our 
cities  are  the  human  tinder  of  anarchy  and  revolution. 
The  sense  of  wrong  and  serfdom  associated  with  the  bitter- 
ness of  poverty  is  the  hot-bed  of  such  Iluns  as  cut-tliroats 
on  the  Tiber,  and  burned  palaces  on  the  Seine,  and  are  not 
ashamed  in  this  day  and  generation  to  avenge  their  wrongs 
with  dynamite  and  kerosene.  A  pauperized  man  is  in  a 
social  sense  a  mildewed  devil.  In  a  domestic  or  home 
sense  the  demoralization  roaches  the  hearth-stone  virtues  of 
a  nation.  It  has  been  the  writer's  lot  to  see  social  evils  in 
many  phases,  and  more  especially  in  its  haunts  of  poverty 
and  back  streets,  and  to  trace  not  a  little  of  the  moral 
plague  to  the  curse  of  a  Shylock's  pay-roll — men  and  wom- 
en with  crooked  fingers  and  bent  backs,  saturated  with  pau- 
perism, browbeaten  and  broken-spirited,  with  boys  in  the 
street  or  the  jail,  and  girls  losing  their  eyesight  for  a  few 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  285 

cents  a  day,  or  selling  their  virtue  for  a  glass  of  gin  and  a 
night's  lodging,  and  home,  such  as  it  was,  but  little  better 
than  a  dry -goods  box  left  to  rubbish  and  street  rats.  From 
such  as  these  self-respect  was  gone,  and  when  humanity 
goes  below  that  level  it  ulcerates.  The  pauperism  result- 
ing from  underpaid  labor  is  a  fruitful  source  of  the  evils 
we  see  in  the  saloon  and  the  brothel.  We  do  not  say  that 
plenty  insures  virtue  or  sobriety,  but  we  do  know  that 
"  hard  times  "  add  to  the  revenues  of  the  grog-shop  and 
the  ranks  of  Jezebel.  Society  may  not  be  regulated  by  its 
dishes,  nor  its  morals  be  a  matter  of  diet,  but  when  one  can- 
not be  bought  and  the  other  can  be  sold,  one  will  seek  to 
forget  his  misery  in  drunkenness,  and  the  other  will  sell 
her  soul  for  a  square  meal.  Human  nature  may  not  be 
changed  by  leaving  a  soup-bone  for  a  beef-steak,  or  a  shan- 
ty for  a  cottage,  but  the  wrongs  that  crush  and  belittle 
manhood  predispose  it  to  any  doctrine  or  practice  by 
which  the  sense  of  wrong  may  be  stupefied  or  the  sting  of 
it  avenged. 

The  concomitants  of  underpaid  labor  are  among  the 
gravest  social  and  national  evils  of  the  age,  sapping  as  they 
do  the  virility  of  the  race  and  the  growth  of  its  commerce. 
The  elements  of  content  and  industrial  justice  are  as  neces- 
sary to  national  virtue  as  the  Ten  Commandments, 

CONVICT    LABOR    IN    INDUSTRIAL    COMPETITION. 

It  is  generally  received  as  a  fact  that  as  between  work 
and  idleness  in  human  happiness  and  character  the  busy 
man  has  the  making  of  the  best.  Work  from  any  stand- 
point is  a  moral  and  physical  blessing.  Laziness  with 
money  or  without  is  the  neutral  stage  of  crime.  Decay 
commences  in  a  man  as  in  a  cabbage,  when  activities  cease; 
and  as  idleness  makes  human  nature  plastic  and  unresist- 
ing to  evil  influences,  it  follows  that  work  may,  to  a  cer- 


2yG  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

tain  extent,  be  reformatory  and  helpful.  It  is  against  gen- 
eral experience  to  suspect  an  industrious  man  of  crime. 
Free  perspiration  and  constant  work  are  general  helpmates 
to  good  morals.  This  is  recognized  in  our  penal  system. 
The  convict,  as  a  violator  of  the  law,  is  accorded  by  uni- 
versal consent  a  course  of  punishment  and  isolation.  For 
a  certain  period  of  time  he  is,  as  a  citizen,  personally  extin- 
guished ;  but  though  no  longer  a  voter,  he  is  still  a  man — 
a  living  member  of  the  human  family.  His  reform  is  as 
•necessary  as  his  imprisonment,  and  one  of  its  best  meth- 
ods is  the  Gospel  of  Work.  On  that  all  men  agree.  The 
point  of  dispute  is  not  on  his  employment,  but  on  its 
abuse  for  mercenary  reasons  and  its  introduction  as  a  ru- 
inous element  in  industrial  competition.  To  find  the  con- 
vict work  and  escape  this  result  is  part  of  the  labor  prob- 
lem. Public  sentiment  is  manifestly  against  making  its 
law-abiding  citizens  suffer  from  the  industrial  service  of  its 
criminals.  It  has  on  its  face  the  brand  of  a  public  wrong. 
In  sympathy  with  this  sentiment,  the  best  thought  and  the 
closest  investigation  have  been  engaged  in  this  important 
matter,  and  though  able  to  suggest  remedies  for  this  evil, 
know  no  way  to  remove  it.  The  good  accomplished  by 
constant  employment,  in  morals,  health,  and  future  well- 
being  of  convicts,  is  too  apparent  for  any  thinking  man  to 
seek  its  suppression — nor  are  men  to  be  found,  however 
doubtful  of  these  reformatory  results,  who  would  wish  to 
see  the  crime  of  a  State  afforded  the  luxury  of  nothing  to 
do  but  making  a  bed  and  attending  to  rations  three  times 
a  day.  The  necessity  of  work  for  judicial  or  moral  rea- 
sons is  practically  a  settled  question.  To  carry  it  on  and 
do  the  least  possible  harm  to  industry  outside  is  the  sum- 
mary of  public  agitation.  The  local  interests  of  labor 
might  be  protected  by  restricting  competition  in  neighbor- 
ing enterprises,  but  even  then  it  would  be  simply  trans- 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  287 

ferring  tbc  evil  from  one  point  to  another.  The  practical 
prohibition  of  letting  out  convict  labor  at  less  prices  thaa 
those  current  in  the  market  would  likely  be  of  material 
value ;  in  fact  it  is  just  here  where  the  shoe  pinches,  as  no 
living  man  can  compete  with  the  advantages  a  convict  con- 
tractor has  at  his  command,  and  a  condition  of  ruinous 
competition,  while  it  cannot  affect  the  board  or  lodging  of 
a  convict,  takes  both  away  from  free  labor.  It  might  be 
a  wise  departure  to  direct  convict  work  into  State  service. 
It  would  displace  free  men,  it  is  true,  but  not  to  the  extent 
of  its  present  practice.  In  State  improvements,  such  as 
are  neglected,  or  left  to  local  agencies  to  be  dabbled  with 
in  lieu  of  poll-tax,  the  annual  trip  being  made  up  the  hill 
and  down  again,  leaving  bad  roads  to  break  axles  and  mire 
mules.  There  are  States  that  never  will  be  settled,  and  al- 
ways at  a  marketable  disadvantage,  till  hills  are  levelled, 
swamps  drained,  and  areas  of  inundated  lands  saved  from 
annual  floods  by  canals  and  embankments.  In  what  more 
serviceable  direction  could  convict  labor  deploy  itself? 
The  subject  is  one  of  profound  importance,  as  implicating 
conflicting  interests,  each  of  which  has  logical  rights  and 
duties,  the  legal  suppression  of  local  or  ruinous  competition 
being  the  nearest  method  at  hand  of  compromise  or  adjust- 
ment. 

INDUSTRIAL    REPRISALS. 

Reprisal  signifies  antagonism.  Its  actuating  spirit  gives 
it  the  terror  of  revenge  or  the  majesty  of  retribution.  So 
far  as  it  goes  as  a  method  of  protest  against  injustice, 
and  so  long  as  it  implicates  in  its  consequences  only  the 
guilty  parties,  just  so  far  is  it  excusable,  and  in  a  certain 
sense  justifiable;  but  when  it  overlaps  or  ignores  these 
conditions  then  it  becomes  a  moral  and  social  sin.  It 
may  be  said  of  all  reprisals  that  the  most  justifiable  arc 
misfortunes,  and  of  the  rest,  that  such  as  are  nc)t  mistakes 


288  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

nro  absolutely  ciiincs.  It  has  come  to  pass  that  our  civili- 
zation has  not  dispensed  with  the  misfortune  or  the  crime ; 
in  fact  the  shadow  broadens  on  the  dial,  so  much  and  so 
prominently  so  that  society  is  at  last  aroused  to  ask  the 
reason  why,  and  agitate  for  some  practical  solution.  Each 
of  the  two  parties  engaged  in  this  industrial  struggle  claims 
the  right  to  such  methods  of  reprisal  as  it  deems  most  ef- 
fective ;  and  so  far  as  a  sense  of  right  animates  either 
side  of  the  conflict,  just  so  far  is  the  excuse  or  the  justifi- 
cation. Still,  the  whole  system,  as  indicating  an  abnormal 
condition,  is  more  or  less  an  evil.  The  outcome,  even  if 
on  the  side  of  justice,  is,  after  all,  but  a  result  that  ought 
to  have  been  effected  by  reason  and  not  by  reprisal.  It  is 
true  that  the  old  bludgeon  method  of  adjustments  is  going, 
but  the  old  spirit  dies  liard.  There  is  a  fang  yet  in  the 
jaw  of  the  wolf,  in  spite  of  his  modern  sheepskin  coat; 
for  instance,  the  practice  of  "  blacklisting,"  as  adopted  by 
some  corporations.  It  has  the  merit  of  being  very  ef- 
fective; its  edict  is  final;  it  troubles  no  jury  and  sends 
for  no  sheriff ;  its  machinery  is  purely  clerical,  with  the 
magnanimous  advantage  of  being  operative  wherever  its 
agencies  exist;  it  has  its  watch -dog  by  every  door,  and 
woe  to  the  man  who  with  its  brand  on  his  brow  seeks  for 
work  and  bread  in  any  one  of  its  departments.  He  is 
proclaimed  by  a  corporation  Czar.  He  is  in  Siberia,  and 
yet  under  the  dome  of  Washington.  I  well  remember  a 
workmate  of  my  own  being  put  under  this  ban  of  ostra- 
cism. He  was  discharged  without  notice,  and  the  reason 
refused  him.  I  did  my  best  for  his  re-engagement;  pre- 
vious successes  made  me  confident,  but  this  case  bafi3ed 
me.  I  suggested  application  to  another  department,  under 
the  management  of  a  humane  and  kindly  man.  He  refused. 
Another  was  tried — the  same  result.  I  completed  the  circle, 
and  in  every  case  a  blank  but  unwilling  refusal — my  un- 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM,  289 

fortunate  comrade  sent  adrift,  with  the  onus  of  some  un- 
known disgrace  staining  his  name  for  more  than  six  liun- 
dred  miles.  It  came  to  my  knowledge  subsequently  that 
he  was  blacklisted  at  the  request  of  one  man,  whose  per- 
sonal ill-will  was  gratified  in  his  discharge.  This  official 
could  practically  ruin  any  one  he  chose,  as  an  offering  for 
the  corporation  altar.  Can  this  be  right  ?  Such  cases  are 
not  few,  and  this  inquisitorial  arrangement  has  wide  rami- 
fications, as  many  a  hungry  man  and  shoeless  child  can 
testify.  Corporations  have  a  right  to  protect  their  interests 
from  obnoxious  or  dangerous  employes,  but  there  is  no  law 
to  justify  the  discharge  or  the  disgrace  of  any  man  without 
giving  the  reasons  therefor.  Scratch  a  man's  name  from 
the  pay-roll  if  you  please,  but  hesitate  before  you  wipe 
your  quill  on  his  character.  This  system  of  reprisal  can 
never  allay  trouble  or  dam  up  the  torrent  of  discontent 
waiting  to  flood  society  with  strife. 

On  the  labor  side  of  the  conflict  we  see  "  boycotting " 
resorted  to  as  a  method  of  reprisal.  This  is  in  scope  and 
effect  a  tremendous  means  of  offence.  In  connection  with 
the  stupendous  organizations  of  labor  it  is  practically  om- 
nipotent; its  abuse  as  eminently  disastrous  as  its  use  is 
effective.  Its  possible  consequences  are  of  serious  mag- 
nitude. It  is  a  civil  war  with  a  new  weapon.  Its  effects, 
while  primarily  intended  for  offending  parties,  may  reach 
to  others  outside  the  offence,  and  literally  ruin  and  impov- 
erish innocent  families  by  the  score. 

In  running  the  business  of  a  firm,  the  head  may  retire 
to  Ills  country-seat,  but  what  of  the  hands  and  the  poor- 
house?  Boycotting  is  as  dangerous  as  dynamite,  and  one 
can  but  hope  that  it  and  all  other  reprisals  will  disappear 
as  their  causes  die.  The  whole  system  of  reprisal  is  out 
of  accord  with  the  healthy  conditions  of  morality  and  prog- 
ress, but  its  existence  is,  and  forever  will  be,  the  outcome 

19 


290  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

of  all  industrial  strife,  till  the  principle  of  arbitration  is 
paramount  in  the  settlement  of  disputes,  and  labor  finds 
its  level. 

CONSCIENCE    IN    CONTRACTS. 

Contracts  are  one  of  tiie  legal  requirements  of  business. 
As  between  one  man  and  another  they  have  the  sacredness 
and  fixity  of  a  bargain  made  binding  by  mutual  consent 
and  indorsement.  The  part  it  thus  occupies  in  the  varied 
phases  of  investment  and  industry  places  its  value  and  ram- 
ifications beyond  even  an  approximate  computation.  It 
can  be  elastic  or  stringent,  wise  or  unwise,  its  status  in 
these  qualities  made  or  methodized,  according  to  the  con- 
sent and  conscience  of  the  contractors.  Accepting  things 
as  we  find  them,  in  the  general  trend  of  business  tendencies 
and  morals,  it  may  be  safely  assumed  that  on  both  sides 
the  direct  and  ruling  idea  is  the  personal  benefit  of  each 
man  concerned  in  the  outcome.  As  each  is  guard  of  his 
own  interests,  so  is  he  justified  in  their  protection,  and  thus 
it  is  that  the  system  of  contracts  is  one  in  which  outside 
inteference  is  permissible  only  in  the  general  way  of  results. 
At  this  point  there  can  be  but  one  law  operative — that 
which  belongs  to  the  higher  rules  of  conscience  and  com- 
mon-sense. The  condition  of  public  virtue  is  the  weather- 
gauge  of  its  bargains.  The  law  of  competition  may  indi- 
cate the  trend  of  values  up  or  down,  but  no  economic  law 
can  create  or  annul  the  higher  principles  that  affect  integ- 
rity, practical  wisdom,  and  conscience  in  business.  It  is 
not  altogether  a  hopeful  omen  of  public  virtue  that  so 
many  contracts  are  made  in  which  results  as  affecting  Labor 
are  but  a  secondary  consideration,  or  are  selfishly  ignored. 
The  sin  of  a  pick-pocket,  the  greed  of  a  Shylock,  and  the 
treason  of  a  Judas  may  all  be  authorized  and  protected  in 
the  process  of  contract  making.  We  have  known  personal 
pique  and  inhuman  selfishness  to  be  the  actuating  spirit 


SIDK-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR   PROBLEM.  2D1 

in  these  bargains,  and  so  far  as  personal  sliame  or  respon- 
sibility is  concerned,  the  onus  is  on  the  signatories — but 
the  outcome  of  depressed  values  and  industrial  inisery  is 
like  Herod's  knife  on  the  throats  of  the  Innocents.  The  evil 
is  of  such  magnitude,  and  so  hedged  with  personal  rights, 
that  our  industrial  economics  point  to  but  one  possible  so- 
lution, and  that  lies  in  the  partnership  of  all  concerned  both 
in  making  a  contract  and  sliaring  its  output.  As  it  is,  this 
contract  armor  protects  not  only  the  honest  man  but  the 
knave,  the  industrial  benefactor  and  the  industrial  villain. 
In  the  divided  responsibilities  of  corporations  especially 
the  virus  of  this  evil  is  so  distributed  that  even  a  jihilan- 
thropist  may  rejoice  in  a  dividend  exacted  by  absolute  in- 
iquity from  the  hands  of  industry,  and  know  nothing  of 
the  methods  by  which  his  feast  of  fat  things  has  been 
picked  from  poor  men's  bones.  It  is  consequently  not  a 
matter  of  wonder  that  the  most  disastrous  and  colossal  of 
labor  reprisals  and  discord  are  evolved  in  a  majority  of 
cases  through  the  huge  joints  of  the  corporation  Pharos,  in 
whose  iron  belly  are  the  toiling  and  the  poor.  Said  an 
eminent  coal  operator  to  me  one  day,  when  suggesting  to 
him  the  principle  of  arbitration  as  the  "  missing  coupling" 
between  his  counting-room  and  the  mine,  "  I  am  not  to 
blame  for  this  strike  ;  the  corporations  have  been  its  cause. 
I  am  helpless.  Their  supply  agents  liavc  to  make  smart 
bargains  to  increase  their  reputation  and  salary,  and  neither 
myself  nor  my  men  count  for  a  straw  in  the  matter.  They 
have  a  perfect  knowledge  of  my  financial  standing,  they 
know  to  a  ton  the  output  of  my  mines,  they  know  my  de- 
pendence on  their  patronage,  and  having  got  me  in  a  cor- 
ner, they  put  their  ultimatum  under  my  noso — 'Take  this 
or  nothing.'  I  wish  my  men  well,  and  have  a  sound  regard 
for  my  own  interests,  but  in  this  case  we  arc  all  alike — but 
so  much  Iamb  for  a  corporation  wolf."    This  case  illiishatcs 


292  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

a  great  deal  that  does  not  come  into  public  account  when 
the  nation  is  shocked  with  strikes  and  outrages.  Mean- 
while the  causes  of  it  all  fatten  on  their  contracts,  and  Nero 
fiddles  as  the  city  burns.  The  above  is  not  a  solitary  in- 
stance, but  it  is  enough  to  make  my  point  in  this  paper — 
that  a  vast  amount  of  discord  and  anarchy  is  not  due  to 
the  want  of  new  laws,  but  the  disregard  of  the  ancient 
maxim,  "  Do  to  others  as  you  would  they  should  do  to 

you." 

There  are  more  moral  reasons  than  economic  causes  at 
the  base  of  labor  troubles,  and  till  conscience  is  a  factor  in 
contracts,  we  shall  find  in  business  as  in  morals,  when  God 
is  kept  out,  the  devil  steps  in. 

THE    REIGN    OF   BACCHUS. 

The  vice  of  intemperance  is  in  all  its  bearings  direct  or 
relative;  perhaps,  of  all  others,  the  most  deplorable  and 
destructive.  The  gravity  of  its  magnitude  and  conse- 
quences in  industrial  life  is  best  known  to  such  as  labor 
for  its  elevation  and  happiness.  In  the  removal  of  this 
curse  the  best  of  men  have  exhausted  labor  and  life ;  they 
have  differed  as  to  methods,  but  not  as  to  object.  It  may 
be  that  agitation  would  have  been  more  successful  had  its 
patience  been  equal  to  its  task.  Americanized  philanthro- 
py is  gingerly  impatient ;  it  would  dump  vice  by  fiat.  In 
cutting  down  the  tree  it  forgets  the  roots.  The  grub-hoe 
is  in  some  things  better  than  the  axe.  Evil  habits  are  not 
eradicated  by  a  "  hurrah,"  nor  extinguished  by  legislation 
or  constables.  It  is  the  innate  sense  of  this  fact  that  makes 
so  many  good  and  humane  men  opposed  to  compulsory 
and  drastic  measures.  The  abuse  of  stimulants  does  not 
condemn  their  rightful  use.  Their  occasional  necessity  is 
evidenced  by  the  constant  change  in  their  forms  and  names. 
In  meeting  the  evils  of  intemperance  this  fact  must  be 


SIDB-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR   PROBLEM.  293 

squarely  met,  for  the  average  intellect  cannot  see  the  dif- 
ference or  the  sin  in  taking  a  narcotic  when  sleepless,  and 
a  glass  of  ale  when  tired,  providing  the  use  of  either  stops 
with  the  necessity.  In  many  of  the  hardships  of  industrial 
life  men,  if  not  justified,  arc  pretty  soundly  excused  for  the 
use  of  the  only  stimulant  they  can  command  promptly  and 
cheaply.  Moreover,  temptation  to  excess  is  located  gen- 
erally where,  as  with  the  spider's  web,  the  flies  are  thickest. 
The  grog-shop — the  "  hole-in-the-wall  " — the  cosey,  snug, 
well-lighted,  well-warmed  tavern,  are  on  every  hand  with 
open  doors,  where,  as  a  rule,  homes  are  without  attraction, 
and  in  location  and  atmosphere  poisonous.  It  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  saloons  thrive  best  in  such  neighborhoods, 
not  because  the  people  are  necessarily  vicious,  but  in  a 
certain  sense  necessarily  comfortless.  This  phase  of  the 
evil  has  not  escaped  the  notice  of  philanthropists,  who,  if 
the  slower,  were  yet  the  wiser  friends  of  man,  who  would 
cure  evils  by  removing  their  real  causes.  In  the  higher 
circles  of  life  home  attractions  abound,  and  social  pleas- 
ures are  provided  in  club-rooms  and  parlors  ;  but  with,  say, 
a  gang  of  miners  who  visit  a  town  for  their  pay,  where,  as 
a  rule,  is  any  provision  made  for  social  gatherings  outside 
a  pot-house  ?  The  purchase  of  popular  taverns  in  London, 
and  replacing  intoxicants  with  wholesome  drinks,  retaining 
all  other  elements  that  made  them  attractive,  has  been  found 
an  emphatic  and  positive  good.  It  is  worthy  of  example. 
It  is,  in  fact,  a  social  and  reformative  necessity,  and  it  may 
be  that  in  the  betterment  of  industrial  conditions,  and  the 
replacing  of  old  groggcries  with  such  London  institutions, 
will  tell  heavily  on  the  drinking  habits  of  industry.  In 
this  direction  it  seems  to  me  that  old  l}acchus  will  have  to 
vacate  his  throne,  and  be  finally  relegated  to  the  medicine 
chest  of  the  doctor,  or  the  shelf  of  the  druggist.  As  it  is, 
the  drinking  habit  is  ruinous  to  body  and  soul.     I  have 


294  TUB    LADOR   PROBLEM. 

Lad  to  do  with  its  human  wrecks  in  city  dens,  liospitals, 
prisons,  and  on  ships'  decks.  These  moral  ruins  have  been 
objects  of  unspeakable  agony.  The  rabid  eye,  the  totter- 
ing brain,  the  palsied  limb,  and  the  broken  heart,  have  wit- 
nessed to  the  fatal  curse  of  intemperance ;  and,  as  a  matter 
of  experience,  moral  suasion  with  individuals  was  the  only 
method  of  reaching  them,  and,  as  a  matter  of  history,  the 
removal  of  causes  the  most  likely  means  of  social  regener- 
ation. Stimulants  will  coexist  with  the  planet.  Intem- 
perance will  continue  till  the  Judgment-day,  but  the  dram- 
shop, as  a  legalized  curse,  will  be  replaced  by  the  Coming 
Institution,  that  will  add  to  the  old  comforts  and  dispense 
with  the  old  drinks. 

THE  SLAUGHTER  OF  THE  INNOCENTS. 

Child-labor  is  one  of  the  outgrowths  of  competition  and 
low  wages.  Considerations  as  to  results  on  health  and 
morals  have  been  ignored  in  the  grand  scramble  for  trade 
supremacy  and  the  family  exchequer.  So  derelict,  in  fact, 
liave  business  and  parentage  been  in  this  vital  matter  that 
legislation  has  been  repeatedly  invoked  to  check  the  evil. 
The  prohibition  of  child-labor  under  a  certain  age,  and  the 
compulsory  enforcement  of  certain  periods  for  educational 
purposes,  have  been  beneficial,  though  the  fact  of  its  neces- 
sity augurs  but  little  good  in  business  methods  and  domes- 
tic duty.  In  England,  now  an  island  workshop,  the  in- 
spectorship of  districts,  the  faithful  application  of  law,  the 
legalized  enforcement  of  holidays,  and  the  system  of  edu- 
cation by  relays,  has  done  much  for  children.  It  remains, 
however,  a  standing  evidence  of  some  wrong  condition  in 
our  social  order,  that  the  burden  of  toil  and  the  curtailed 
opportunities  of  education  should  cast  a  grim  shadow  on 
child-life.  If  the  rights  of  mind  and  the  claims  of  the 
body  are  a  necessary  sacrifice  to  modern  existence,  the 


SIDE-LIQIITS    ON   THE    LABOIl    PUOBLEM.  295 

proof  is  indisputable  of  social  wrong  and  economic  sin, 
awaiting  something  to  revolutionize  its  conditions.  Said  an 
old  chartist,  with  the  salt  of  the  North  Sea  in  his  gray  hair, 
as  he  bade  me  fill  my  infantile  lungs  with  the  ozone  of  the 
ocean,  "When  thou  art  a  man,  my  lad,  remember  that  all 
children  have  a  right  to  fresh  air  and  good  schooling,  and 
what  stands  in  the  way  of  that  give  it  a  lick."  In  after- 
years  this  idea  of  a  British  radical  has  gathered  strength, 
more  especially  when  in  an  official  sense  among  the  chil- 
dren of  the  poor,  working  in  mills  and  factories.  Tiio 
bleached  and  wizened  faces  of  these  lads  and  lasses,  with  no 
stamina  in  their  spines  and  no  neck  between  their  cars, 
pining  in  stifling  air,  and  lean  with  poor  food  and  hard 
work,  with  precocious  gifts  of  profanity  and  social  vice, 
and  but  half  conscious  of  parentage  and  home — these  were 
shadows  on  the  wall  of  a  pernicious  and  demoralizing  sys- 
tem. The  physical  results  alone  were  a  counterbalance  to 
all  commercial  prosperity,  begetting  a  race  of  pygmies  and 
invalids.  In  a  national  sense  these  effects  are  already  man- 
ifest. The  old  British  race  of  muscle  and  stout  spines, 
challenging  the  world  in  robust  health  and  athletic  prowess, 
is  falling  behind  its  traditional  glory.  In  philanthropic 
work  among  soldiers  the  fact  of  this  lowering  status  was 
painfully  evident.  The  old  standard  of  iieiglit  and  girth 
had  to  come  down,  recruits  from  manufacturing  districts 
were  alarmingly  deficient  in  sinew  and  soundness,  and  the 
old  veterans,  bronzed  and  broad-shouldered,  of  former  days 
were  as  a  distinct  race  among  the  sallow  and  scraggy  men 
of  later  times.  Undermine  national  health,  and  its  glory 
is  on  the  wane.  Again,  the  moral  effects  of  child-labor  are 
in  ratio  with  physical  degeneracy.  The  child-vice  of  this 
ago  is  alarming,  as  medical  men,  magistrates,  and  school- 
masjters  know ;  and  if  it  is  true,  as  observation  convinces 
mc  it  is,  that  the  early  period  of  life  sets  its  aftercurrents 


296 


THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 


to  the  rio-lit  or  the  left,  then  it  is  hut  the  fnlfillinc^  of  an 
inexorable  law  that  a  ruined  childhood  is  the  basis  of  cor- 
rupt and  hopeless  manhood.  If  such  conditions  are  the 
priinals  of  the  next  age,  wjiat  will  it  be  in  individual  char- 
acter or  national  progress?  It  is  the  eminent  duty  of  all 
well-wishers  of  human  good  that  this  evil  should  be  re- 
moved, and  the  rights  of  children  zealously  protected.  We 
are  not  yet  a  hemispherical  workshop,  though  ambition  has 
it  on  its  programme,  and  the  full  measure  of  this  child- 
peril  is  but  loosely  estimated.  It  remains,  however,  as  an 
inevitable  sequence,  that  if  we  fail  on  this  line  of  duty,  we 
shall  but  repeat  the  old  story  of  national  decay. 


THE    BUREAU    OF    LABOR A  TRIBUTE    AND    A    SUGGESTION. 

The  Bureau  of  Labor  is  a  modern  institution.  It  has 
the  merit  of  being  a  public  good,  and  the  importance  of 
being  a  national  necessity.  Its  existence  is  a  condition  of 
the  higher  civilization  that  has  crept  out  of  the  old  shell 
of  feudalism,  and  is  making  humanity  of  more  importance 
than  the  millinery  of  courts  or  the  proclamations  of  kings. 
This  grand  instinctive  sympathy  of  man  with  man — the 
one-anotherism  of  the  common  race — that  is  germinating 
such  institutions  as  the  Bureau  of  Labor,  is  about  the  most 
consolatory  fact  the  student  of  the  times  can  stay  his  hopes 
upon,  amid  the  disintegrating  elements  of  modern  society. 
That  this  Republic  has  aligned  itself  with  this  humane  en- 
deavor is  a  credit  to  its  statesmanship  and  an  augury  of  its 
future.  The  Bureau  of  Labor  is  a  tribute  to  the  conscience 
and  sagacity  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  it  only  remains 
for  Time  to  spread  its  influence  and  information  to  insure 
it  a  high  place  in  public  opinion.  The  awakened  interest 
in  the  Labor  question  owes  not  a  little  of  its  stimulant  to 
this  institution.  Its  incorporation  of  facts  and  figures,  its 
revelations  of  disturbing  causes  in  industrial  life,  and  its 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PKORLKM.  297 

suggestions  of  what  is  wanted  as  coiTcctivc  or  remedy,  witlj 
the  added  authority  of  investigation,  gives  eminent  oppor- 
tunity for  statesmanship  to  meet  the  issue,  and  the  public 
to  measure  tlie  duties  and  needs  of  the  hour.  The  future 
will  probably  amplify  its  functions,  for  as  yet  it  is  in  an 
experimental  and  constructive  stage.  It  will  outgrow  a  sta- 
tistical agency,  or  a  supply  department  for  economists  and 
legislators ;  that  alone  is  a  direct  and  positive  good,  but  it 
seems  to  me  that  in  addition  to  this  there  is  formulating 
with  these  bureaus  a  possibility  of  putting  the  hand  to  the 
plough  as  well  as  the  pen.  One  of  the  most  important  de- 
velopments of  office,  sooner  or  later  to  become  an  out- 
growth or  adjunct,  is  in  the  direction  of  providing  infor- 
mation for  labor  seeking  employment,  as  well  as  to  states- 
men seeking  facts.  We  see  here  and  there,  across  this 
majestic  continent,  the  migratory  elements  of  the  Labor 
world.  We  are  crowded  with  nomads,  who  are  seeking 
the  right  locations  for  employment.  These  men  are,  many 
of  them,  at  the  mercy  of  a  rapacious  crowd  of  contractors 
and  intelligence  men,  who,  to  boom  a  new  town,  to  reduce 
wages  by  over-crowding  tiie  market,  or  secure  a  commis- 
sion, will  by  fraudulent  representation  mislead  and  impov- 
erish the  men  who  are  in  quest  of  labor.  There  are  moro 
victims  of  tiiis  villany  to  the  square  acre  in  this  Republic 
than  perhaps  in  any  land  under  the  sun.  It  is  a  growing 
evil  and  a  national  shame,  and  counts  for  more  bad  blood 
and  industrial  discontent  than  Mrs.  Grundy  can  possibly 
imagine.  Its  remedy,  to  be  effectual,  needs  the  authority 
and  State  facilities  of  our  Bureau  of  Labor.  They  might 
become  central  directories  of  labor,  if  in  no  other  way  yet 
in  this,  of  being  able  to  answer  all  inquiries  pertinent  to 
the  emergency.  It  would  add  to  the  work,  it  is  true,  but 
if  by  any  means  it  could  add  to  labor  protection  and  guid- 
ance, it  would  bo  ciKhnved  with  additional  autiiority  and. 


298  THE    LABOR    PRODLEM. 

with  means  equal  to  its  task,  be  yet  even  a  greater  good 
than  it  is.  Under  the  shelter  of  its  State  jurisdiction  mi- 
gratory industry  would  no  longer  be  at  the  mercy  of  the 
dishonest,  and  one  of  the  gravest  of  human  needs  in  mod- 
ern times  be  promptly  and  effectually  met. 

SOME    POSSIBLE    HUMANITIES    OF    LABOR    ORGANIZATIONS. 

It  is  not  likely  that  the  adjustment  of  labor  disputes  will 
close  the  existence  or  usefulness  of  its  organizations.  Their 
work  will  not  cease  with  the  wrongs  that  summoned  them 
to  conllict.  As  a  factor  in  social  and  economic  reform  the 
labor  combination  will  keep  in  camp.  In  copartnership, 
with  agencies  already  in  the  field  for  the  amelioration  of 
human  necessities,  it  will,  in  its  strength  of  combination, 
be  an  attribute  of  success.  Its  benevolent  associations  in- 
dicate its  spirit  in  this  direction.  Social  science,  as  out- 
lining public  duty  in  sanitary  and  other  matters,  will  add 
its  departments  to  the  jurisdiction  or  co-operation  of  labor 
combination,  as  being  the  most  directly  interested  in  its 
services.  For  instance,  the  homes  of  labor,  grouped  too 
often  in  surroundings  of  sanitary  death,  and  overcrowded, 
to  the  joy  of  landlords  and  the  business  of  grave-diggers. 
This  is  a  matter  that  sooner  or  later  will  command  the 
searching  consideration  of  all  who  are  at  all  concerned  in 
the  welfare  of  industry.  The  initial  step  has  been  taken 
in  compelling  the  removal  of  some  sanitary  nuisances  from 
populated  localities.  The  location  of  a  tannery  or  a  slaugh- 
ter-house is  now  a  matter  of  public  interest.  Our  old  civ- 
ilizations had  no  such  scruples.  Landlords  and  traders  had 
the  right  to  do  as  they  pleased,  if  they  owned  the  land 
and  paid  for  the  bricks.  They  might  make  boilers  or  soap 
as  they  chose,  though  the  noise  of  one  reverberated  in  an 
hospital,  and  the  savor  of  the  other  was  spread  in  a  school. 
This  kind  of  liberty  is  being  abolished,  at  least  in  respecta- 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LADOR    PROBLEM.  299 

ble  localities,  where  mansard  roofs  and  mullioned  windows 
have  an  extra  claim  for  the  protection  of  lungs  and  noses. 
To  give  ten  dollars  a  week  the  protection  that  is  given  a 
thousand  per  annum,  on  the  ground  of  common  rights,  is 
a  phase  of  reform  that  it  would  be  well  for  Labor  to  help 
along.  There  are  in  the  suburbs  of  most  cities  locations 
where  healthy  homes  could  be  secured  and  capital  found 
to  provide  them,  if  organized  effort  was  made  in  that  direc- 
tion. Transit  to  and  fro  could  be  secured  by  the  same 
means,  and  at  such  rates  that  Labor  could  have  its  cheap 
ride,  as  its  employers  with  a  season  ticket  and  a  rural  villa. 
The  issue  of  penny  and  weekly  tickets  for  workmen  on 
some  of  the  railway  lines  of  London  are  an  evidence  of 
what  may  be  done  in  this  direction.  In  railway  experi- 
ences from  the  Tync  to  the  Thames,  nothing  more  signifi- 
cant or  of  pleasure  to  myself  than  these  bits  of  pasteboard 
— the  silent  texts  of  a  new  gospel,  by  which  the  pallid- 
faced  and  air-poisoned  masses  found  their  way  to  sunshine 
and  sweet  air,  the  daisies  and  the  skylarks,  theirs  by  will 
of  God,  though  denied  so  long  by  the  sin  of  society.  The 
colonization  scheme,  as  in  present  operation  in  Claremont, 
Va.,  by  which  workmen,  on  the  payment  of  monthly  in- 
stalments, can  secure  ten  or  twenty  acre  plots  of  ground, 
and,  if  they  choose,  have  the  same  improved  and  planted 
with  fruit-trees,  under  the  supervision  of  the  sagacious 
manager  of  this  enterprise,  is  not  only  of  national  moment 
as  affecting  the  destinies  of  the  South,  but  of  importance 
as  an  indication  of  what  is  possible  in  the  way  of  work- 
men changing  their  conditions.  This  "  Mancha  idea"  is  a 
happy  combination  of  beneficence  and  business.  The  pro- 
tection of  migratory  labor  in  its  search  of  employment,  as 
suggested  in  a  previous  article  on  "The  Nomads  of  Labor," 
is  on  the  line  of  organization  duty,  and  calls  for  prompt 
and  vigorous  service.     The  humane  provision  for  bodily 


300  THE    LADOR    PROBLEM. 

accidents  in  trades  and  occupations  where  they  arc  likely 
to  happen,  and  as  more  fully  set  forth  in  another  part  of 
this  chapter,  is  of  more  direct  importance  than  many  of 
the  issues  on  which  time  and  wind  are  thrown  away.  Leg- 
islate for  the  shambles  of  industry,  with  its  annual  wagon- 
load  of  hands  and  feet.  There  would  be  fewer  fingers  and 
toes  on  our  railway  tracks  if  our  labor  organizations  pressed 
the  matter  of  safety  couplings.  Their  possible  humanities 
are  increasing,  and  perhaps  less  of  parades,  mummery,  and 
gold-lace  would  be  of  advantage  in  practical  dealing  with 
such  human  needs  as  we  have  outlined.  Anyhow,  the  phases 
of  usefulness  possible  to  the  labor  organization  indicate  its 
line  of  duty  and  its  beneficent  future. 

THE    HOURS    OF    LABOR. 

The  expenditure  of  time  in  securing  the  necessaries  of 
life  is  a  question  of  public  concern.  Its  direct  and  relative 
bearings  involve  many  vital  and  social  issues.  As  affecting 
the  individual  concerned,  in  health,  morals,  and  mental  de- 
velopment, and  in  the  relationships  of  the  family  and  the 
citizen,  its  true  issues  are  manifest.  The  home  influences 
of  social  life  are  the  constructive  forces  of  its  security  and 
progress — a  girdle  of  vitalities  which,  when  cut,  lets  anar- 
chy and  crime  run  loose,  and  develops  that  modern  bar- 
barian, the  savage  of  civilization.  Its  relationships  and 
duties,  if  hindered  or  annulled  in  any  shape,  have  the  pre- 
cise characteristics  of  all  vital  issues,  which,  if  not  appro- 
priated, are  as  pernicious  as  they  were  beneficent.  Onr 
juvenile  depravity — the  generation  coming  up — who  know 
but  little,  and  care  less,  of  parental  guidance  and  discipline 
beyond  new  shoes  on  pay-days  and  a  dinner-pail,  seen  only 
on  Sundays,  are  direct  results  of  such  cases  of  long  hours, 
which,  though  comparatively  exceptional,  arc  yet  too  nu- 
merous.    There  are  children  to-dav  in  most  of  our  larse 


SIDE-LIGIITS    ON    TUK    LABOR    PllOBLEM.  301 

cities  who  never  yet  saw  their  father  by  daylight.  A  man's 
life  was  not  given  to  be  sliced  off  in  fiftccn-hour  chunks 
of  toil.  No  condition  of  industrial  life  can  be  right  that 
thus  ignores  the  home  functions  of  its  constituents.  The 
ten-hour  system  was  in  this  sense  an  act  of  social  self-pres- 
ervation. Its  unnecessary  violation  as  too  common  is  as 
pernicious  as  unjust,  and  is  certainly  doomed  to  extinction. 
The  axe  is  laid  at  the  root  of  the  tree.  Man  is  awake  to 
his  needs  and  rights.  Education  has  quickened  his  appe- 
tite for  knowledge.  Enlightenment  reveals  other  needs 
than  those  of  buying  his  bread  and  his  boots,  and  the  era 
of  applied  science  is  at  his  door,  with  its  marvellous  labor- 
saving  methods,  quadrupling  the  output  of  industry,  and 
making  the  shortage  of  industrial  days  an  economic  neces- 
sity. The  clock  of  toil  is  shortening  its  pendulum.  It 
would  seem  that  though  modern  discovery  has  added  new 
needs  for  Labor  to  its  forces,  it  has  yet  come  into  operation 
at  the  juncture  when  Labor  itself  finds  new  needs  and  aspi- 
rations in  its  life.  The  two  lines  are  in  equal  motion,  and 
are  without  doubt  a  part  of  the  Divine  economy  by  which 
the  discovery  of  new  forces  is  made  a  factor  in  Imman  as 
well  as  industrial  developments.  By  this  law  the  hours  of 
labor  are  scheduled,  and  though  the  eight-hour  agitation 
may  be  premature,  it  indicates  an  economic  current  run- 
ning that  way.  Its  present  bearings  on  production  and 
wages  arc  matters  of  moment  and  study.  Opinions  are  in 
conflict  as  to  some  results,  but  neither  dividends  nor  profits 
can  swamp  the  vital  issue,  that  the  man  is  more  than  the 
mill. 

There  arc  employers  who  grudge  even  a  legal  Sunday  as 
a  parenthesis  in  the  making  of  money,  and  there  are  em- 
ployes who  arc  equally  as  rapacious;  with  each  of  these 
every  step  in  the  direction  of  shortened  hours  is  opposed. 
AVith  such  a  class  it  is  a  cent  against  a  sentiment,  money 


302  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

versus  man  ;  but  not  even  this  spirit  can  keep  the  edged 
tool  of  justice  from  the  most  payable  of  wrongs  in  any 
business  or  with  any  men.  The  equitable  arrangement  of 
time  in  industrial  life  is  governed  by  economic  and  moral 
laws,  and  its  bell  -  rope  is  in  hands  that  make  their  own 
time-table. 

THE    ECONOMICS    OF    DISTRIBUTION    IN   COPARTNERSHIP   AND 
CO-OPERATION. 

Distribution  is  in  obedience  to  economic  laws,  by  which 
no  one  man  or  set  of  men  can  have  the  exclusive  possession 
of  wealth,  wisdom,  or  power.  Its  processes  are  in  continu- 
al motion,  and  it  has  never  yet  been  given  to  emperors  or 
empires,  millionaires  or  monopolists,  to  escape  its  agencies. 
The  builders  of  Babel  have  been  extensively  copied,  but  its 
new  architects  and  bricks  have  gone  in  the  old  way.  No 
padlock  lias  yet  been  permanently  put  on  God's  granaries, 
whether  of  government  or  bread.  The  silent  but  inevita- 
ble law  of  distribution  has  ever  been  detaching  chips  from 
all  monopolistic  blocks.  Civilization  is  its  witness.  The 
luxuries  of  life  once  the  portion  of  the  few  are  distributed 
among  the  many.  The  royal  right  of  an  old  duke  is  novi^ 
on  the  plate  of  a  pauper.  Knowledge  once  limited  to 
monks  and  men  of  means  is  now  the  birthright  of  a  shoe- 
black. Arts  that  minister  to  the  eye  and  the  ear,  once  re- 
stricted to  baronial  halls  and  dowagers,  are  scattered  in 
chromos  and  advertising  cards,  and  warbled  on  tin  whistles 
and  mouth-organs.  Wealth  in  lands  or  money  join  the 
procession,  and  though  poverty  increases  there  are  more 
men  rich  to-day  who  began  life  with  a  crust  and  a  spade 
than  over  before  in  the  history  of  the  human  race.  It  is 
true  that  wealth  in  many  cases  runs  its  rain  into  big  tubs 
and  monopoly  tanks,  but  this  does  not  exclude  the  coexist- 
ing fact  that  its  distribution  is  beyond  previous  historic 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM,  303 

proportions.  The  outcry  against  wealth  as  an  individual 
right,  with  the  exception  of  extreme  socialists,  is  not  so 
revolutionary  and  general  as  some  suppose.  There  is 
enough  of  common-sense  in  the  average  head  to  make  the 
distinction  between  the  abuse  of  money  and  the  right  to 
possess  it  when  legitimately  obtained.  Wealth  not  inher- 
ited or  stolen  is  recognized  as  the  product  of  industry,  in- 
vestment, and  the  qualities  of  energy,  persistence,  and  sa- 
gacity. Distribution  has  been  according  to  fitness,  and  so 
we  see  it  where  men  who  once  wore  blue  jeans,  and  eat 
their  potatoes  with  the  skins  on,  have  risen  into  higher  con- 
ditions of  life.  It  is  the  abuse  of  the  money  power,  in 
forcing  values  up  or  down  to  the  detriment  of  industry,  by 
corners,  deals,  and  monopolies,  the  grinding  of  poor  men's 
bones  as  grist  for  dividends  and  share-holders,  that  has  set 
the  teeth  of  the  people  on  edge.  It  is  true  these  methods 
have  their  own  punishments,  and  the  kings  of  Wall  Street 
are  sometimes  brought  to  poverty  and  a  broom-handle,  but 
the  sin  of  the  whole  system  of  financial  gambling  and  ra- 
pacity remains  as  the  bugbear  of  industrial  life.  So  the 
adjustment  of  wealth,  as  opposed  to  its  vicious  accumula- 
tions and  uses,  is  projected  on  the  public  mind  as  a  possible 
solvent  of  its  evils.  The  principles  of  copartnership  and 
co-operation  come  in  as  a  new  force  to  the  old  canon  of 
distribution,  and  on  the  same  line  as  has  come  our  com- 
mon modern  heritage  of  what  was  once  exclusive  and  lim- 
ited. The  two  factors  named  are  a  unit  on  principle,  and 
without  doubt  the  nearest  approach  to  industrial  and  social 
justice.  Here  again,  in  new  conditions  as  in  the  old,  the 
law  of  fitness  will  work  the  same  as  ever.  The  attributes 
of  success  remain  umliangcd.  There  will  be  princes  and 
paupers,  according  to  the  same  rules.  Between  a  bankrupt 
organization  and  an  individual  poor  man,  the  dilTercnce 
in  terms  will  make  none  in  the  hardness  of  a  crust  or  the 


304  TIIK    LAUOR    PROBLEM. 

absence  of  a  dollar.  Aptitude,  brain,  and  energy  will  con- 
tinue to  grade  society  with  rich  and  poor.  In  this  matter 
the  millennium  of  the  socialist  is  a  delusion.  There  is  no 
escape  from  the  economics  of  distribution  by  giving  new 
names  to  old  facts.  We  can  duplicate  every  tyranny  and 
wrong,  and  every  phase  of  pauperism,  in  any  possible  con- 
dition of  industry.  There  is  no  Arcadia  in  the  future  for 
any  man  who  is  behind  his  duties  in  the  present.  Co- 
partnership and  co-operation  are  grand  methods.  Their 
part  in  the  industrial  life  of  the  future  will  be  beneficent 
and  progressive,  but  the  granite  of  the  old  virtues  will  for- 
ever remain  as  the  foundation  of  prosperity  and  happiness. 

POSSIBLE    PERILS    IN    LABOR    ORGANIZATION. 

Organization,  as  a  science  by  which  a  unit  is  made  of 
numbers,  is  rapidly  becoming  a  vital  factor  in  modern  civ- 
ilization. It  is  already  the  text-book  of  agitation  and  re- 
form. It  is  systemizing  human  needs  and  rights  into  sol- 
id and  disciplined  combination,  and  thereby  giving  new 
force  and  prominence  to  what  it  unities  and  represents. 
By  concentration  it  has  introduced  an  element  of  strength 
which,  for  good  or  for  evil,  is  beyond  all  others  history  has 
yet  recorded.  In  its  older  phases  of  governments,  corpo- 
rations, and  monopolies,  it  has  had,  with  all  its  sins,  the 
advantage  of  prestige,  intellect,  and  power.  Education  has 
provided  it  a  new  competitor,  just  as  distinctly  human  in 
its  faults  and  virtues,  and  its  possibilities  of  good  and  evil, 
with  the  disadvantage  of  inexperience  and  less  knowledge. 
This  later  form,  grouped  under  the  caption  of  Labor  Or- 
ganization, though  above  all  others  in  equity  and  beuefi- 
cence,  starts  with  the  encumbrance  of  membership  that, 
under  social  wrongs,  has  had  less  opportunities  to  study 
than  to  suffer.  To  control  passion  and  dissipate  ignorance, 
to  teach  and  to  discipline,  is  no  small  part  of  the  task  it 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LADOIl    PROBLEM.  305 

has  undertaken.  To  succeed  in  this  is  to  succeed  in  all. 
Duty  and  danger  stand  together  on  this  phmk.  Blind 
methods  and  bad  officials  are  the  millstones  that  sink  soci- 
eties as  well  as  empires  in  the  sea.  In  this  its  early  life, 
and  with  some  milk  yet  in  its  bones,  it  cannot  be  too  care- 
ful in  seeing  to  its  education  and  habits.  It  has  the  sup- 
port of  public  sentiment,  and  so  long  as  its  methods  and 
spirit  are  on  the  line  of  sagacity  and  justice  it  will  letain 
it,  but  any  persistent  deviation  therefrom  will  estrange  its 
best  friends  and  end  its  usefulness.  In  a  general  sense, 
all  things  considered,  and  separating  the  excesses  of  out- 
siders from  its  franchises  and  responsibility,  it  stands  out 
in  broad  daylight  a  hopeful  and  beneficent  existence.  Its 
future  is  in  its  own  hands.  It  is  its  own  architect.  Its 
immediate  danger  crops  out  of  its  sudden  development  of 
strength.  Hercules  is  apt  to  act  the  bully,  and  there  are 
symptoms  at  times  of  a  disposition  to  act  arbitrarily,  if 
not  yet  worse.  These  may  be  traceable  in  some  cases  to 
local  indiscretion  and  officiousness,  but  they  clearly  indi- 
cate the  possibility  of  being  meddlesome  and  overbearing. 
Said  a  prominent  contractor  in  my  hearing,  "I  believe  in 
the  need  of  trades-unions,  and  have  largely  employed  un- 
ion men,  but  when  they  dictate  as  to  whom  I  shall  employ 
and  whom  I  shall  discharge,  I  stand  on  my  personal  rights. 
The  order  has  just  been  given,  'Trowels  down,'  because  I 
refused  to  give  a  certain  man  the  same  pay  for  laying  just 
half  the  number  of  bricks  other  men  were  placing  for  the 
same  wages.  I  cannot,  on  business  principles,  give  an  in- 
efficient man  the  same  pay  as  the  best  because  he  shelters 
his  incompetency  under  a  union  ticket."  The  logic  of  this 
was  incontrovertible,  and  the  case  a  plain  infringement  of 
justice,  and  as  with  all  others  of  the  same  kind,  reaction- 
ary. Such  methods  are  out  of  common  equity,  intolerant, 
and  suicidal.     Organization  sheepskin  fails  to  make  mut- 

20 


306  THE    LABOR    PRODLEM. 

ton  out  of  wolf.  A  clanger  less  discernible,  but  equally 
disastrous,  is  the  national  affliction  of  political  influence. 
This  disease,  peculiar  to  the  soil,  is  practical!}'  without  lim- 
it, except  with  Chinamen  and  convicts,  and  its  green  eyes 
are  already  set  on  labor  organizations.  Politicians  have 
suddenly  developed  into  labor  sympathizers  and  able-bod- 
ied advocates  of  its  claims.  In  this  matter  a  clean  slate  is 
necessary,  and  the  old  Gladstone  warning  of  "  Hands  off  " 
is  of  vital  importance.  Suffrage  is  a  matter  of  personal 
volition,  and  is  not  to  be  disposed  of  in  solid  blocks.  The 
individual  citizen  has  his  duties  and  his  rights,  but  his  in- 
dustrial combinations  arc  not  to  be  split  in  two  with  the 
political  wedge,  a  sacrifice  too  dear  even  for  a  demi-god 
with  his  throne  in  Washington,  To  become  but  plastic 
putty  on  a  political  thumb,  and  so  manipulated  for  the  in- 
terests of  spoil  and  power,  would  be  a  grave  and  fatal  evil 
in  labor  organization. 

ARBITRATION    IN    THE    JUDICIARY    OF    LABOR. 

Civilization  is  never  a  consummation.  Its  conditions 
are  mutable  and  changing.  It  begets,  and  is  begotten,  and 
in  line  of  parentage  and  descent  is  a  series  of  evolutions, 
in  each  of  v^'hich  some  particular  force  or  quality  has  as- 
serted its  individual  volition.  AVe  are  but  the  human  in- 
gredients in  this  continued  progress,  meeting  all  along  the 
line  with  new  conditions,  in  which  the  qualities  of  mind 
and  morals  are  subject  to  new  tests  and  set  to  new  duties, 
the  one  immutable  verity  remaining  through  all  the  strata 
of  history,  that  Truth  and  Justice  are  the  abiding  and  un- 
changing law  of  all  progress  in  individual  character  or  na- 
tional life.  In  this  divine  granite  the  rights  of  all  men  are 
set  beyond  removal  and  above  decay.  Faith  in  this  sub- 
lime verity  has  made  our  heroes  and  established  our  lib- 
erties.    As  before  said,  we  find  ourselves  confronted  with 


SIDE-LIGIITS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  307 

new  phases  of  responsibility  and  duty,  and  the  one  at  pres- 
ent the  most  momentous  is  the  disturbed  relationship  of 
Labor  and  Capital.  There  is  no  escape  from  this  impend- 
ing crisis  save  in  accepting  it  as  the  problem  of  the  age  and 
setting  ourselves  to  its  solution.  This  fact  is  generally 
accepted,  and  the  statesmanship  of  our  best  thinkers  is  in 
sympathy  with  the  needs  and  tlic  duties  of  the  hour.  The 
most  prominent  and  pronounced  formula  of  reform  is  the 
principle  of  Arbitration,  by  which,  in  all  disputable  cases 
of  industrial  discord,  reason  shall  have  its  fair  and  full  op- 
portunity, and  give  to  both  Capital  and  Labor  an  equal 
standing  at  the  tribunal  of  Brain  and  Justice.  This  is  in 
accordance  with  the  spirit  that  is  coming  into  phenomenal 
activity  in  this  century.  In  civilized  nations  disputes  that 
once  led  to  an  appeal  to  arms  are,  in  spite  of  stupendous 
armaments,  yet  more  than  ever  in  history  affected  by  pub- 
lic opinion,  and  a  just  cause  is  to-day  more  terrible  to  des- 
pots and  diplomats  than  the  arsenals  of  Woolwich  or  the 
guns  of  Krupp.  The  Geneva  initial  of  this  new  departure, 
as  settling  a  grave  dispute  between  this  country  and  Eng- 
land without  the  rattle  of  a  musket,  was  a  step  made  mem- 
orable forever,  and  was  in  its  methods  and  outcome  dis- 
tinctly humane  and  prophetic.  This  self-same  principle  is 
the  one  needed  in  industrial  disputes.  It  stands  to  com- 
mon-sense and  good  reason  that  its  virtues,  if  operative  on 
a  bayonet,  are  equally  as  effective  on  a  chisel.  If  it  made 
brain  superior  to  bullets,  it  can  make  the  same  promotion 
of  Reason  over  and  above  brick-bats  and  dynamite.  The 
old  style  of  brutal  reprisal  must  eventually  go,  and  the  rel- 
ative duties  and  claims  of  master  and  man  submitted  to  a 
verdict  as  sacred  as  public  sentiment  can  make  it.  This  is 
to  bo  the  output  of  arbitration,  and  its  adoption  will  be  one 
of  the  memorable  accomplishments  of  our  present  civiliza- 
tion.    Its  use  has  been  demonstrated,  and  its  further  elab- 


308  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

oration  will  add  to  its  indorsement.  In  what  it  represents 
and  signifies,  as  an  appeal  to  reason  and  justice,  its  possible 
benefits  and  ramifications  are  beyond  calculation.  Its  meth- 
ods are  as  yet  but  secondary  considerations.  Experience 
is  the  best  statesmanship  for  all  formative  reforms.  Theo- 
ries may  be  many,  but  facts  risrhtly  read  are  a  unit  in  wis- 
dom. It  is  not  claimed  that  in  all  cases  arbitration  will 
be  cScctual.  It  cannot  so  be  said  of  any  measure  an- 
nounced either  on  Sinai  or  in  Washington,  but  it  may  be 
safely  predicted  that  in  the  application  of  this  principle, 
however  methods  inay  err,  the  spirit  is  unassailable.  It  is 
not  a  solvent  for  every  evil.  It  has  its  particular  work. 
It  is  on  the  line  of  progress.  Public  recognition  will  add 
to  its  value,  and  repeat  in  the  workshop  that  message  of 
Deity  heard  in  His  Temple,  "  Come,  let  us  reason  together." 

GHENT    AKD    LEICESTER — TWO    LIGHTS    ON    COMMUNISM. 

It  came  about  that  in  the  year  1877  the  general  congress 
of  the  "Internationale"  was  held  in  the  old  and  somewhat 
famous  town  of  Ghent :  the  said  congress  a  cosmopolitan 
concern,  made  up  of  many  "  nations,  kindreds,  and  tongues," 
its  deliberations,  as  a  consequence,  of  universal  import,  in- 
volving issues  many  and  manifold.  As  an  organization  its 
scope  and  programme  are  prodigious.  No  interest,  govern- 
ment, or  religion  escapes  the  fold  of  this  social  anaconda. 
Its  head  in  New  York,  its  tail  in  Egypt,  a  veritable  mam- 
moth. At  Ghent  it  was  moderate  and  sensible.  Its  coun- 
cil-chamber was  severely  simple,  and  clean -swept  of  all 
pomps  and  vanities.  It  is  true  that  the  delegates  "  wetted 
their  whistles"  with  Belgian  lager,  and  that,  as  a  type  of 
the  coming  woman,  one  of  such  served  out  the  brown  and 
inspiring  fluid  ;  but  are  not  politics  and  beer  kindred  souls 
everywhere  in  the  world  outside  of  the  State  of  Maine  ? 
The  council  itself  had  a  hard  row  to  hoc.     On  the  Hague, 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  309 

in  1872,  it  had  been  a.  "  house  divided  against  itself."  To 
pick  up  the  pieces  and  cement  them  together  was  the  first 
duty  of  common-sense  and  policy.  It  was  so  recognized, 
and  in  a  certain  rough  fashion  accomplished.  The  olive- 
branch  hung  high ;  the  wolf  and  the  lamb  ate  grass  to- 
gether. This  was  called  the  "  Pact  of  Solidarity."  It  had 
generous  elements,  embracing  "trades-unions,"  "socialistic 
propagandas,"  "communistic  colonies,"  and  all  such  clubs 
as  were  ready  to  use  any  and  every  means  to  hasten  the 
data  of  socialism.  The  governing  idea  was  revolution. 
The  maxim  of  Marx,  that  "  force  must  be  the  midwife  to 
bring  into  the  world  the  new  society,"  was  indorsed.  There 
were  a  few  who,  in  justice  let  it  be  said,  opposed  the  doc- 
trine of  violence.  A  certain  Swiss  delegate  advocated  the 
peaceful  "  raoralization  of  the  people,"  and  pointed  to  Ger- 
many as  an  example,  where  six  hundred  thousand  votes  had 
placed  eleven  tried  and  trusty  socialists  in  Parliament  with- 
out one  tap  of  the  revolutionary  drum.  But  be  that  as  it 
may,  though  the  means  differ  the  end  is  the  same.  The  pro- 
gramme is  cast-iron,  and  it  means  the  absolution  of  wages, 
of  capital,  of  property,  and  of  all  government  not  socialistic. 
This  is  thorough.  It  pulls  up  by  the  roots;  it  smites  as 
Samson  did,  hip  and  thigh.  Whatever  mystery  may  be- 
long to  its  movements,  there  can  be  none  as  to  its  princi- 
ples ;  and  yet  who  shall  say  but  "  the  gopher  may  get  under 
the  corn,"  and  social  liberty  be  invaded  with  the  velvet 
foot  and  the  dark  lantern  of  Guy  Fawkes,  his  matclufs  light- 
ed, his  powder  dry,  and  Mrs.  Grundy  in  the  peace  of  her 
parlor  overhead.  We  are  to-day  in  the  prelude  condition 
of  such  a  calamity.  The  necessary  elements  abound — la- 
bor in  forced  idleness,  hungry  men,  corrupt  public  officers, 
ambitious  demagogues,  an<l  a  huge  army  of  genoral  dead- 
heads, eager  for  anything  that  promises  a  free  lunch,  cock- 
tails all  around,  and  the  unspeakable  fun  of  putting  its  fork 


810  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

into  another  man's  potato.  All  this  is  so  much  dry  wood 
for  the  international  match,  but  apart  from  this,  as  a  sys- 
tem of  social  ethics,  tlie  new  gospel  has  few  converts.  It 
can  never  thrive  liere,  for,  like  the  leprosy,  it  is  a  climatic 
curse.  It  is  a  failure  in  Northern  latitudes,  and  only  roots 
itself  in  such  races  as  are  clannish,  gregarious,  and  hot- 
blooded.  It  has  never  yet  gone  the  length  of  a  tenpcnny 
nail  in  Anglo-Saxon  oak.  The  strong  sense  of  right,  of 
fair  play  for  you,  me,  and  everybody,  and  the  peculiar,  al- 
most solitary  individuality  that  marks  the  race,  make  so- 
cialism foreign  to  its  instincts  and  habits.  It  is  the  lone, 
colossal  Cromwell  on  which  so-called  communism  falls 
spent  and  harmless  as  rain  on  rock. 

The  labor  convention  held  at  Leicester,  almost  simultane- 
ous with  the  congress  at  Ghent,  illustrates  this  historical  fact. 
This  convention,  though  convened  at  the  dictum  of  a  trades 
combination,  was,  in  fact  and  spirit,  an  appeal  to  reason  as 
a  supreme  force  in  righting  social  and  industrial  wrongs. 
It  was  a  departure  from  the  gospel  of  violence,  and  in  itself 
prophetic  of  a  possible  harmony  between  Capital  and  La- 
bor. That,  after  all,  is  the  coming  question  to  be  settled 
on  the  platform  of  intelligence  or  the  wreck  of  revolution. 
This  Leicester  convention  was  not  exclusive.  It  had  no 
sentimental  horror  of  a  rich  man.  He  was  there,  one  with 
the  rest,  a  unit  with  the  issue.  This  example,  in  its  atti- 
tude and  office,  is  commended  to  American  attention.  The 
central  figure  of  Brassey  at  Leicester,  wealthy  and  noble, 
standing  up  between  conflicting  elements,  not  as  a  pleader 
for  either,  but  an  amalgam  of  both,  is  an  historical  exam- 
ple :  "  Go  thou  and  do  likewise."  Such  men  and  such  a 
spirit  are  the  need  of  the  hour — men  broadly  human  and 
bravely  just,  whose  deeds  inspire  integrity,  and  whose 
brotherhood  leaves  no  Lazarus  at  the  gate,  to  crumbs,  stray 
dogs,  and  flies.     Would  to  God  this  nation  in  its  present 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  311 

crisis  bad  more  such  men  as  these.  From  the  crown  of 
the  head  to  the  sole  of  the  foot  this  people  are  ailing.  It 
must  go  back  to  Plymouth  Rock  for  health.  Its  spirit  of 
speculation  must  tone  down  to  honest  trade,  on  the  old- 
fashioned  plan  of  square  dealing.  The  era  of  extravagance 
must  shut  down,  and  prefer  rye  bread  and  a  spare  cent  to 
toothsome  cake  and  a  mortgage.  Men  in  office  must  be 
true  to  their  trust  and  the  vote  that  placed  it  in  their 
hands,  and  then,  maybe,  on  this  leverage  the  nation  may 
come  up  from  its  descent  into  discord,  corruption,  and 
Pittsburg. 

THE  RACE  ELEMENT  IN  SOCIAL  TROUBLE. 

The  race  element  in  all  social  trouble  is  showing  its 
hand.  It  is  already  changing  the  profile  of  national  char- 
acter. We  are  in  this  Republic  a  fusion  of  races,  on  the 
basis  of  common  freedom  and  a  common  language.  That 
basis  of  law  and  language  held  in  abeyance  discordant  ele- 
ments, and  described  with  its  masterful  spirit  the  widening 
circle  of  our  strength  and  progress;  it  has  unified  the 
varied  importations  of  foreign  bloods  and  the  necessary 
antagonisms  of  prejudice,  creed,  and  color.  The  formative 
gift  of  the  primal  stock  may  never  be  completely  obliter- 
ated, even  if  mmimized  by  the  influx  of  other  races. 
Hitherto  the  consideration  of  race  in  our  future  has  been 
subordinated  to  the  material  and  constructive  duties  of 
building  up  the  fabric  of  a  country  and  a  nation.  Wc 
have  at  last  reached  the  stage  where  this  forgotten  ques- 
tion is  forced  on  the  public  mind.  Labor  trouble,  with  its 
concomitants  of  socialism,  communism,  outrage,  murder, 
red  flags,  and  petards,  have  thrown  race  influence  into 
prominence.  It  would  indicate  if  not  establish  the  dan- 
ger that  the  hot-blooded  races,  emotional,  savage,  and  clan- 
nish, would  submerge  in  a  sea  of  kerosene  the  old  Saxon 


312  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

solidity  and  granite.  In  labor  outrages  the  nationality  of 
its  leaders  would  be  a  wholesome  revelation  to  that  class 
of  politicians  who  make  political  pets  of  races,  and  who 
would  wine  the  devil  himself  if  he  could  cast  a  ballot. 
The  evil  in  manufacturing  centres  is  more  or  less  the  out- 
come of  competition  and  commercial  greed.  Operators 
have  led  the  way  in  the  direct  importation  of  races  whose 
ignorance  and  habits  of  life  find  in  low  wages  and  stale 
bread  enough  and  to  spare.  This  plastic  material,  that  eats 
but  little  and  costs  less,  has  in  many  cases  made  the  im- 
migration of  better  workmen  a  grim  necessity.  The  forc- 
ing of  this  cheap  labor  on  the  market  has  had  much  to  do 
with  industrial  discord  and  trouble.  It  may  have  increased 
dividends  on  the  one  side,  and  it  certainly  has  dissension 
on  the  other.  It  was  a  short-sighted  policy,  to  say  the 
best  of  it,  for  it  brought  on  the  ground  the  elements  of 
graver  evils  than  it  sought  to  evade.  The  wolf  once  sat- 
isfied with  a  bone  now  clamors  for  his  dish  of  mutton. 
The  constituents  of  these  labor  importations,  mostly  from 
Southern  Europe,  are  soaked  through  and  through  with 
ignorance  and  superstition,  and  are  festering  yet  in  body 
and  soul  with  filth  and  clannishness,  a  blister  on  the  social 
body  and  a  check  to  its  advancement.  As  a  Republic, 
with  our  gates  wide  open  hitherto  to  the  world,  a  home 
for  labor  and  a  refuge  from  wrong,  it  is  not  easy  to  see 
our  way  out  of  the  race  dilemma.  The  surplus  populations 
of  Europe  have  only  as  yet  begun  their  western  march ; 
the  future  will  see  its  columns  crossing  the  Atlantic  Jor- 
dan. The  cradles  of  continents  are  rocking  our  future 
citizens.  The  worthy  are  welcome,  the  worthless  are  not ; 
and  it  might  be  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  so  far  as  labor 
interests  are  concerned,  that  such  employers  who,  by  direct 
contract,  procure  cheap  labor  from  abroad,  should  be  by 
law  compelled  to  pay  a  high  tariff  on  such  merchandise. 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  313 

"\Vc  protect  the  trade  of  tlio  mill,  and  it  miglit  be  equally 
just  to  protect  the  labor  of  the  man.  The  late  outburst 
of  public  feeling  on  the  Pacific  slope  against  Chinese  labor 
is  significant.  We  cannot  indorse  such  outbreaks,  neither 
can  wc  afford  to  leave  the  reasons  undiscussed :  the  whole 
matter  indicates  the  coming  importance  of  the  race  ques- 
tion. We  arc  the  dumping -ground  of  the  other  hemi- 
sphere, and  if  not  in  justice  and  strength  of  national  char- 
acter able  to  absorb  and  assimilate  it,  it  is  but  a  question 
of  time  when  Plymouth  Rock  and  all  it  signifies  will  be 
buried  in  European  garlic.  The  more  perfect  our  freedom 
the  wider  our  education,  and  the  more  prosperous  our  in- 
dustrial centres,  the  more  of  justice  and  the  less  of  wrong, 
the  greater  our  safeguards  in  preserving  not  only  our  lan- 
guage and  our  laws,  but  our  liberties. 

BRICKS    ■WITHOUT    STRAW. 

Injustice  within  legal  limits  is  always  possible  to  a  shrewd 
man,  and  a  common  practice  with  an  unprincipled  one;  so 
much  and  so  commonly  so  that  usage  and  custom  have 
given  this  evil  the  sanctity  of  consent  and  the  shelter  of 
protection.  In  the  daily  round  of  industrial  life  this  spirit 
walks  unblushingly ;  its  ways  and  means  a  part  of  the 
business  programme,  labor  supplying  its  spoils,  the  scis- 
sors always  going  in  tlic  poor  man's  wool.     For  instance, 

A ,  for  his  week's  labor,  has  liis  pay  part  in  cash,  and 

the  residue  in  an  order  on  some  particular  store  for  such 
provision,  etc.,  as  he  may  need.  He  may  have  his  own  rea- 
sons for  preferring  some  other  merchant  or  store,  and  per- 
ha[)s  he  has  a  certain  well-justified  idea  that  this  credit  busi- 
ness places  him  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  quality  and  cost 
of  his  purchase.  Be  that  as  it  may,  lie  has  no  alternative 
but  to  suffer  and  submit.  At  the  end  of  thirty  days  his 
omploycr  pays   the    bill    and    receives  a  discount,  some- 


314  THE    LABOR    TROitLKM. 

times  as  high  as  ten  per  cent.  Who  pays  it  ?  The  work- 
man. 

B has  filled  his  week,  and  has  his  pay  in  warrants. 

They  are  worth  their  face  for  tax-payments,  but  fail  in  the 
purchase  of  bread  and  butter,  except  as  a  favor  or  at  a  loss. 

B hears  of  an  office  or  man  who  advances  eighty-five 

cents  on  the  dollar.  He  has  to  accept  it.  Who  loses  in 
this  transaction  ?  The  workman,  who  has  given  his  richer 
brother  the  value  of  two  pounds  of  prime  beef-steak  for 
every  day  in  the  week,  himself  obliged  to  eat  hard  bread 
and  herring. 

C is  paid  in  instalments.     He  earns  ten  dollars  and 

receives  eight  —  the  rest  held  back  for  various  excuses 
which  it  would  cost  him  his  employment  to  dispute.  In 
fact  his  dues  are  never  paid  till  he  leaves  the  establish- 
ment. In  large  concerns  this  money  borrowed  of  work- 
men amounts  to  considerable  sums,  and  can  be  manipu- 
lated in  business  with  heavy  profits.  Who  lends  it  at  a 
personal  loss?     The  workman. 

D is  paid  in  paper-money  issued  by  his  employers, 

and  only  current  in  certain  prearranged  directions,  the  ob- 
ject being  to  secure  a  profit  out  of  his  purchases  as  well  as 
his  labor.  He  may  be  the  better  or  the  worse  in  what  he 
buys,  but  if  there  is  a  loss  or  a  disadvantage  who  has  to 
stand  it?     The  workman. 

E is  fifteen  minutes  behind  time — it  may  be  laziness, 

it  may  be  domestic  sickness ;  by  the  rule  of  the  shop  he 
forfeits  an  hour's  pay.  Not  being  likely  to  idle  away  the 
rest  of  the  hour,  nor  to  attract  notice,  he  goes  to  his  work; 
and  the  earnings  of  the  forty-five  minutes — who  gets  it? 
The  employer.  It  is  of  course  right  to  enforce  punctual- 
ity in  business ;  the  loss  of  a  few  minutes  with  a  hundred 
men  is,  when  totalized,  of  considerable  importance.  Its 
remedies  must  of  necessity  be  severe,  but  that  is  no  rca- 


SIUE-LIGIITS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  315 

son  or  justification  of  a,  system  that,  when  pushed  to  ex- 
tremes, punislies  a  man  for  a  mistake  in  liis  clock  or  a 
corn  on  his  foot  by  picking  his  pocket. 

One  might  multiply  instances  without  number  to  illus- 
trate the  mercenary  spirit  that  needs  exorcising  out  of  in- 
dustrial life.  Its  evil  is  not  only  in  what  it  steals  but  in 
what  it  teaches.  It  is  contagious  and  epidemic.  Its  greed 
is  transferable.  The  selfishness  at  one  end  of  society  lias 
its  route  marked  to  the  other.  Such  a  spirit  is  not  likely 
to  be  localized,  and  if  its  transmission  is  furthered  into 
labor  organizations  they  will  become  a  huge  monopoly  of 
numbers,  duplicating  the  spirit  from  which  they  primarily 
recoiled.  The  relative  influence  of  injustice  is  part  of  its 
retribution.  The  evils  named  in  this  connection  may  appear 
insignificant,  but  it  is  these  "  little  foxes  that  eat  the  grapes." 
It  is  not  the  massiveness  of  a  wrong  that  constitutes  its 
danger;  a  worm  in  an  oak  can  do  more  than  a  whirlwind. 
The  foundations  of  social  existence  are  not  to  be  moved  by 
crow-bars,  but  by  the  silent  mildew,  the  trickling  damps, 
the  rat's  tooth,  and  the  corroding  gases ;  and  the  labor  trou- 
ble, gigantic  as  it  seems,  is  a  make-up  of  such  evils  as  men 
who  know  no  better  underrate  or  deny. 

EDUCATION  AND   INDUSTRIAL   EMANCIPATION. 

Education  is  the  sap  of  civilization.  The  influence  of 
one  is  the  virility  of  the  other,  and  marks  the  distance  in 
social  progress  between  the  citizen  and  the  savage.  Its  ex- 
pansion in  industrial  life  is  at  once  the  cause  and  the  safe- 
guard of  its  progress.  In  tracing  the  lines  of  all  social  up- 
heavals its  influence  is  manifest  both  in  their  methods  and 
results.  As  affecting  the  virtues  that  build  up  personal 
character,  it  is  constructive  but  not  creative.  It  has  its 
limits  in  the  world  of  morals,  and  falls  short  of  making 
good  men  out  of  good  scholars,  as  our  police  courts  plainly 


316  TllK    LABOR    PROBLKM. 

evidence.  It  is  possible  for  an  educated  man  to  be  behind 
a  barbarian  in  honor,  honesty,  and  righteousness.  We  em- 
phasize this  to  guard  against  the  somewhat  popular  delu- 
sion that  an  educated  people  are  necessarily  virtuous  and 
happy.  In  its  own  functions  and  limits  it  is  indispensable 
in  the  struggle  of  modern  life  and  the  discovery  of  the  best 
solutions  of  its  problems.  Ignorance  with  a  sense  of  wrong 
is  blind,  and  its  methods  of  redress  are  brutal  and  self-stul- 
tifying. It  may  be  accepted  as  a  fact  that  the  outrage 
and  diabolism  that  occasionally  crop  out  of  strikes  and 
lock-outs  are  in  most  cases  directly  traceable  to  men  who 
never  carried  the  alphabet  under  their  caps,  or  wrote  their 
name  on  a  slate.  In  the  spread  of  education  the  evils 
named,  if  not  annulled,  are  considerably  reduced.  The  la- 
bor element  is  already  conscious  of  this,  and  brain  is  slow- 
ly but  surely  coming  to  the  front.  Men  who  read  and 
think,  who  are  capable  of  judging  the  merits  of  their 
claims  and  their  duties,  who  read  the  newspapers  and  dis- 
cuss the  signs  of  the  times,  and  are  cognizant  of  the  laws 
that  regulate  social  and  industrial  conditions — these  men  are 
not  likely  to  commit  violence  on  their  own  interests  or 
those  of  another.  It  is  in  the  certain  increase  of  such  men 
by  means  of  education  that  we  see  the  ultimate  adjustment 
of  industrial  difficulties.  Its  effect,  as  diffused  in  all  branches 
of  labor,  will  make  possible  much  of  the  good  we  now  see 
but  are  nnfit  to  receive.  Fitness  is  the  condition  of  pos- 
session. The  law  that  regulates  social  progress  makes  ev- 
ery advance  conditional  on  capacity  and  aptitude.  We  too 
often  whine  for  the  golden  apple,  forgetting  the  ladder  that 
will  bring  it  in  reach.  Many  of  our  labor  millenniums  are 
mercifully  postponed  till  such  of  us  who  would  eat  the 
fruit  have  grown  our  teeth.  The  principles  of  copartner- 
ship and  co-operation,  recognized  as  the  only  alternative  of 
socialism,  are  more  or  less  ahead  of  our  abilities  to  man- 


SIDE-LIGllTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  317 

age,  or  fitness  to  iusiire  success.  We  cannot  play  leap- 
frog in  industrial  {)rogress.  Tatience,  knowledge,  thought, 
and  practical  wisdom  are  the  indispensable  requisites.  If 
half  the  time  expended  in  hooting  this  and  hurrahing  that 
was  utilized  in  seeking  information  and  knowledge,  wc 
should  be  some  miles  nearer  the  goal  of  our  hopes.  Read 
more  and  shout  less.  Think  and  thrive.  Educate — educate 
by  any  and  every  means  that  can  broaden  and  brighten  the 
industrial  mind — by  libraries,  lyceums,  and  a  knowledge  of 
economic  laws,  and  trained,  disciplined  intelligence  will  in- 
sure the  possession  of  all  freedom  can  give  and  justice  de- 
mand. 

The  minimum  of  education  that  has  already  found  its 
way  to  pickaxes  and  hammers  has  done  more  to  advance 
the  interests  and  intiuence  of  labor  than  all  the  blows  ever 
struck  with  a  bludgeon  or  a  pike.  Between  the  serfdom 
of  our  ancestors  and  the  privileges  of  our  children  there 
is  the  difference  of  light  and  darkness.  The  educational 
bridge  keeps  us  out  of  the  old  ditch. 

THE    STEWARDSHIP    OF    WEALTH. 

What  a  man  has  in  excess  of  his  present  and  prospective 
wants  is  a  trust.  Personal  liberty  gives  him  the  choice  of 
its  use  or  its  abuse,  but  moral  and  social  responsibility  holds 
him  to  account  and  future  judgeship.  The  means  of  ben- 
efiting another  arc  an  individual  stewardship.  This  truth 
has  no  exceptions.  It  cannot  be  bought  off  by  a  million- 
aire, nor  silenced  by  mortal  man;  it  is  the  invisible  but 
unavoidable  sheriff  that  follows  gold  to  the  miser's  stock- 
ing and  the  prodigal's  pocket.  In  a  general  sense,  this 
truth,  while  allowed,  is  conveniently  ignored  and  pleasant- 
ly forgotten.  The  old  Hebrew  simile  of  the  camel's  hump 
and  the  needle's  eye  has  a  peculiar  signific.incc  in  these 
times,  when  the  camels  and  the  needles  arc  so  many.     The 


318  THE    LABOR    PROBLKM. 

modern  accumulations-  of  wealth  are  unexampled  in  their 
magnitude  and  number.  Fortunes  that  would  have  been 
fabulous  in  the  near  past  are  common  facts  to-day.  The 
economic  reasons  or  sins  by  which  the  golden  rain  is  run 
in  one  tub,  to  the  loss  of  a  hundred  others,  are  not  in  our 
province  to  discuss ;  the  duties  that  come  with  the  means 
is  the  immediate  concern.  It  is  a  fact  in  all  history  that 
gigantic  wealth  and  gigantic  want  arc  twin  conditions; 
the  prince  and  the  pauper  keep  step  together.  By  an  un- 
deviating  law  of  economics  the  social  world  increases  in  its 
wants  as  it  does  in  its  wealth.  There  is,  in  fact,  no  sur- 
plus in  its  treasury,  and  such  as  hold  its  keys  and  have 
their  names  on  its  doors  are  the  temporary  stewards  of  its 
contents  —  a  responsibility  which,  when  duly  considered, 
makes  it  a  serious  matter  to  be  richer  than  your  neighbor. 
There  are  examples  of  wealthy  men  who,  in  obedience  to 
this  vital  law,  have  shaped  their  lives  accordingly  and  been 
the  princely  benefactors  of  their  race.  The  one  example 
of  Peabody  illustrates  the  spirit  and  practice  of  such  men. 
His  provision  for  the  poor  of  London,  wisely  directed  in 
the  channel  of  sanitary  improvements,  has  given  model 
liomes  to  labor;  the  viciousness  of  landlord  sharks  and 
the  sins  of  architects  removed  from  the  firesides  of  the 
poor.  A  noble  conception  and  a  great  work.  So  with 
others  who  have  founded  hospitals,  endowed  schools,  pro- 
vided free  libraries,  replaced  dram-shops  with  workmen's 
club-rooms,  donated  parks  and  museums,  art-galleries,  etc., 
for  the  well-being  of  their  poorer  but  human  neighbors — 
these  men,  the  Samaritans  of  wealth,  have  made  their  lives 
coequal  with  their  means.  The  call  for  such  a  spirit  is  as 
loud  to-day  as  ever;  the  need  of  such  institutions  is  as 
great.  The  sense  of  public  shame  for  men  who  neglect 
these  opportunities  grows.  A  millionaire  that  is  nothing 
more — outside  his  parasites — is  less  than  a  man,  and  so 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  319 

held  in  public  judgment.  Society  is  coining  out  of  the 
old  illusion  that  the  length  of  a  purse-string  is  the  measure 
of  a  man.  Selfish  wealth  is  estimated  as  but  a  mouse  in  a 
big  cheese,  and  I  doubt  if  in  its  own  heart  it  has  any  high- 
er idea  of  itself.  There  is  a  poverty-bone  in  every  golden 
skeleton.  It  is  the  penalty  of  greed  to  be  always  hungry, 
and  the  epicure  has  his  tape-worm  for  a  Nemesis.  Verily 
the  man  is  richer,  however  poor,  that  shares  his  salted  her- 
ring with  a  neighbor.  In  looking  for  what  is  left  as  heri- 
tages of  good  to  human-kind  by  many  who  now  sleep  in 
silken  shrouds  and  under  monumental  marble — alas!  like 
the  horse-hoofs  of  Attila,  they  have  taken  the  grass  and 
left  but  dust.  It  is  time  the  stewardship  of  wealth  should 
do  its  duty.  Its  priests  may  be  dumb  and  its  parasites 
neutral,  but  its  responsibility  remains  sovereign  and  com- 
manding. The  right  use  of  its  trust  is  the  real  value  of 
its  gold.  Its  opportunities  are  many  and  manifest,  and 
when  utilized  will  cast  "oil  on  the  troubled  waters"  of  so- 
cial discontent.  The  stewardship  of  wealth,  if  a  forgotten 
doctrine,  is  yet  an  awful  verity. 

THE  CRUSADE  OF  THE  CRUST. 

There  is  much  of  poverty  that  is  directly  traceable  to 
industrial  wrongs,  and  as  such  can  be  permanently  extin- 
guished;  but  there  is  not  a  little,  and  far  more  than  the 
bulk  of  mankind  supposes,  that  is  conditional  on  circum- 
stances that  are  unavoidable,  such  as  misfortune,  accident, 
ill-health,  trade  stagnation,  and  even  on  the  sublime  prin- 
ciple of  self-sacrifice,  that  has  never  been  without  its  mar- 
tyrs and  its  heroes,  in  the  shadows  of  back  streets  and  un- 
der the  coverlet  of  city  smoke.  There  is  also  a  vast  horde 
of  men  and  women  who  by  evil  habits  are  in  a  state  of 
chronic  want,  and  who  by  hereditary  taint  and  training 
prefer  a  bed  with  a  rat  and  a  bottle,  or  a  crust  with  a  dram, 


320  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.     . 

than  self-respect  with  a  clean  shirt,  or  a  white  loaf  with 
brown  hands.  Those  arc  our  social  Iluns,  the  festering 
lepers  out  of  which  the  hangman  finds  his  material,  and 
the  reformer  his  foe  —  implacable  and  incurable  save  by 
the  omnipotent  agency  of  Christian  faith.  With  this  class 
we  cannot  classify  the  worthy  and  honest  men  who  from 
reasons  outside  themselves  are  at  times  in  need  of  a  hand 
to  "  help  a  lame  dog  over  the  stile,"  and  as  a  satire  on  many 
of  our  charities  this  class  of  needy  poor  arc  the  last  to 
come  within  their  range.  In  this  Crusade  of  the  Crust  the 
audacious  and  the  unscrupulous  carry  off  the  spoils.  The 
dead-beat  and  the  thief,  the  confidence  man  and  the  sham 
cripple,  can  any  and  all  of  them  be  first  at  the  corn-cribs 
of  charity,  and  the  truly  deserving  but  less  aggressive  find 
but  the  leavings.  Our  charities  have  suffered  from  lack  of 
common-sense  and  organization,  and  their  management  left 
to  big  hearts  and  little  heads.  Discrimination  and  practical 
sagacity  are  their  needs,  otherwise  the  caterpillar  will  mul- 
tiply with  the  cabbages,  and  the  question  be,  which  of  the 
two  shall  last  the  longer?  In  a  city  of  above  seventy  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  with  whose  dens  and  poor  I  was  familiar, 
this  evil  was  an  uppermost  fact  in  my  experience.  Socie- 
ties deputized  their  silks  and  satins,  fresh  from  picnics  and 
croquet-grounds,  to  disburse  their  charities.  Perhaps  the 
gift  of  a  shilling  and  the  smell  of  a  city  slum  might  atone 
for  some  society  vanity,  but  it  failed  to  compensate  for  the 
inexperience  and  ignorance  of  human  nature,  that  to  my 
personal  knowledge  has  fed  with  its  jewelled  hand  the  vice 
that  put  on  rags  and  chalked  its  face  to  obtain  the  cash 
that  as  soon  as  its  fair  giver  was  gone  went  to  the  tavern 
for  a  "pot  of  stout,"  while  virtue,  with  a  clean  door-step 
and  a  thin  frock,  was  starving  on  knitting-needles  and  crack- 
ers next  door,  overlooked,  neglected,  and  forgotten.  On 
this  side  the  Atlantic,  in  a  western  city,  under  the  same 


SIDE-LIC.UT3    ON    THE    LAllOK    PROBLEM.  321 

mcthoil.s  of  procedure,  I  have  seen  groceries  and  coals  go- 
ing to  a  shanty  where  tlie  woman  annually  discarded  her 
husband  in  winter  for  dramatic  effect  on  charity,  earned 
good  wages  at  washing,  owned  a  farm  in  another  county, 
had  occasional  visits  to  the  city-hall  for  disturbing  the  pub- 
lic peace,  but  for  all  that,  received  every  winter  more  coal 
than  she  could  burn,  and  food  than  she  could  use,  mean- 
while merit  that  had  no  brogue  on  its  tongue  was  freezing 
in  the  same  locality.  So  it  is,  and  ever  will  be,  till  charity 
acts  on  the  basis  of  investigation  and  business  sagacity. 
The  incorporation  of  charities  independent  of  sectarianism 
would  concentrate  and  beneficently  utilize  its  wasted  ex- 
chequer. What  is  literally  thrown  to  the  dogs  would  tide 
the  nation  over  hard  times,  and  keep  the  lean  wolf  of  hun- 
ger from  many  a  door  in  which  aptitude  and  industry  arc 
for  a  season  shut  up  with  corn-meal  and  weak  tea.  Eiifijrced 
idleness,  and  unavoidable  penury  clouding  the  unpauperized 
liumanity  that  will  not  beg  and  cannot  steal,  is  too  often 
forgotten. 

THE  PULPIT  AND  THE  POOU. 

Christianity  in  doctrine  and  service  recognizes  the  broth- 
erhood of  man.  Of  all  systems  of  faith  and  practice  it  is 
in  this  vital  direction  conspicuously  alone.  Its  granite 
rests  on  the  levels  of  human  right  and  duty.  There  may 
be  factions  in  its  sects,  class  distinctions  in  some  of  its 
organizations,  and  the  millinery  of  rank  in  its  councils  and 
churches,  but  in  its  spirit  and  essence  it  is  unreachable  and 
incorruptible,  as  above  and  beyond  the  gold-lace  and  the 
tassels  of  all  aristocracism  in  human  rights  and  aspirations. 
Its  inauguration  was  democratic.  It  annulled  all  popular 
ideas  of  social  imperialism.  Its  representatives  were  not 
of  the  Sanhedrim,  but  of  the  fishing -ileet.  Its  morning 
orb  shone  not  on  the  shields  of  the  Roman  or  the  marbles 
of  Tetrarchs,  but  on   the  huts  of  the  Nazarcne   and  the 


822  TUB    LAUOR    TRODLEM. 

docks  of  Capcvnauin.  It  evangelized  among  publicans  and 
sinners,  and  its  mercies,  like  healing  dew,  fell  not  in  the 
gardens  of  Ilerod,  but  over  the  gate -ways  of  the  poor. 
There  is  no  fact  in  history  and  no  force  in  philosophy  so 
sublimely  solitary  in  recognizing  the  rights  of  the  common 
race  as  this  self-same  Christianity.  In  spite  of  all  surface 
appearances  to  the  contrary,  it  is  now,  as  then,  the  unspent 
volition  of  all  that  constitutes  humanity,  justice,  and  free- 
dom. Acknowledged  or  disavowed,  accepted  or  contro- 
verted, its  forces  cannot  be  extinguished  or  its  ministra- 
tions annulled.  It  has  survived  all  abuses  of  priests  and 
kings,  and  though  the  mockery  of  invocation  has  misused 
its  name  in  all  kinds  of  tyranny  and  wrong,  it  remains  as 
untainted  as  an  opal  is  with  the  spawn  of  a  frog,  or  a  crys- 
tal with  the  spit  of  a  toad.  It  is  true  that  many  men  who 
have  been  the  leaders  in  much  of  modern  labor  emancipa- 
tion have  either  ignored  its  claims  or  denied  its  authority. 
I  confess  to  an  old-time  surprise  at  this,  but  maturer  expe- 
riences have,  if  not  providing  good  reasons,  found  some 
potent  excuses.  The  modern  reaction  of  feudalism  found 
the  old  wrong  intrenched  and  consecrated  by  State  relig- 
ions. The  revival  of  liberty  began  in  the  "  common  peo- 
ple," for  whom  then,  as  now,  the  pulpit  had  its  thunders, 
and  the  church  its  back  seats.  Reformers  associated  the 
parson  with  the  dragoon,  and  faith  vanished  when  the  Gos- 
pel was  identified  with  the  scabbard  of  a  trooper.  We  arc 
out  of  that  age,  but  not  altogether  free  from  the  old  evil 
and  the  sceptical  spirit. 

The  pulpit  of  to-day  with  the  masses  is  more  a  relic  than 
a  power.  They  charge  it  with  being  dumb  on  matters  that 
challenge  the  animosity  of  wealth  and  power.  It  is  not  so 
in  many  cases.  It  is  so  in  too  many — if  not  in  words,  yet 
in  spirit.  The  estrangement  of  the  laboring-classes  from 
the  churches  is  one  of  the  most  momentous  signs  of  the 


SlDE-LItillTS    ON    TlIK    LAUOU    PROBLEM.  323 

times.  Tlic  minority  is  church-going,  the  rest  are  cither 
neutral,  or  absorbing  the  poison  of  communism  and  secu- 
larism. Take  away  our  mission-rooms  and  Sunday-schools, 
and  the  temples  in  squares  and  esplanades  are  not  worth  a 
future  insurance.  The  causes  are  many.  There  is  no  lack 
of  scholarship  iu  our  pulpits.  Professional  preaching  is,  in 
an  artistic  sense,  a  success;  homilctics  and  philosophy  nev- 
er commanded  such  histrionic  talent;  self-abnegation  and 
devotcdncss  was  never,  perhaps,  more  widely  exemplified  ; 
but  the  "people"  keep  away.  Is  the  hay  held  too  high 
for  the  sheep  ?  or  would  the  poor  prefer  the  home-made 
bread  of  plain  and  vital  truth  to  the  Sunday  cake  provided 
for  jaded  fashion?  Arc  not  politics  swamping  ministerial 
unction  ?  Is  not  pastoral  support  for  the  "  next  campaign  " 
already  a  political  point?  Is  not  spread-eagleism  and  the 
"  whip-all-crcation  "  business  too  often  heard  in  the  pulpit? 
Is  poverty  as  welcome  to  our  churches  as  he  who  wears  a 
gold  ring  and  abashes  the  usher  with  his  jewelled  shirt- 
front?  It  is  time  the  shepherds  should  awake.  We  have 
been  deputing  Christianity  to  conventions,  constables,  and 
legislators.  Wc  are  trying  to  do  good  by  proxy.  Mean- 
while, greater  forces  for  evil  and  social  calamity  than  his- 
tory ever  knew  arc  quietly  mustering,  for  which  there  is 
but  one  cure  and  one  corrective,  the  pure  and  8iin[)le  truth 
of  Christianity.  "The  Gospel  preached  to  the  poor,"  was 
the  message  sent  to  the  rugged  prophet  of  the  Jordan  as 
its  one  sublime  distinction.  Can  it  now  be  as  truthfully 
said  along  the  Mississippi  ? 

THE    SUNDAY    SIDE    OF    LAHOU. 

The  Sabbath-day  rests  on  the  basis  of  Divine  ordination, 
and  on  that  granite  it  denies  the  pickaxe  of  time,  .scepti- 
cism, or  revolution.  In  its  authority  and  its  claim  no  po- 
litical dictation  or  statutory  parchments  can  icgitimafi-ly  or 


324  THE    LABOR    PHODLEM. 

permanently  interfere.  Its  law  inscribed  on  stone  in  the 
Sinaitic  solitudes,  and  vocalized  by  Hebrew  lips,  has  come 
down  the  ae;es  to  modern  nations,  and  is  a  special  historic 
landmark  wherever  on  this  planet  the  English -speaking 
races  have  pitched  a  tent  or  built  a  barn.  Its  observance, 
nominal  or  otherwise,  by  this  people  has  been  in  moral  and 
physical  results  the  corner-stone  of  its  probity  and  the  sap 
of  its  sinews.  In  its  physiological  bearings  it  is  more  than 
beneficent,  the  Gospel  of  Rest  being  as  necessary  to  the 
salvation  of  man's  bones  as  is  the  higher  law  of  Faith  and 
Duty  for  his  soul.  From  a  sanitary  stand-point  it  is  a  si- 
lent blessing.  It  has  given  soap  and  clean  linen  their  prom- 
inence in  civilization ;  and  I  can  never  look  at  the  well- 
rubbed  faces  and  the  shining  shoes  of  the  children  coming 
out  of  alleys  and  side  streets  on  Sundays  without  being 
guilty  of  thinking  that  the  wash-tub  and  the  blacking-brush 
are  among  the  Sabbath  agencies  of  self-respect,  cleanliness, 
and  health.  To  the  home  side  of  life  it  is  directly  and  em- 
inently serviceable.  It  is  the  weekly  reunion  of  fathers  and 
children,  and  the  opportunity  of  rounding  out  family  re- 
lationships that  have  suffered  for  six  days  from  any  expres- 
sion but  that  of  a  dinner-can,  and  a  coming  and  going  by 
candle-light.  The  moral  effect  of  Sabbath  teachings  and 
worship,  in  its  broad  propaganda  of  virtue,  duty,  conscience, 
judgment,  and  life  to  come,  and  as  lifting  men  to  the  high- 
er levels  of  spiritual  progress — in  these  things,  not  condi- 
tional on  gold,  nor  forbidden  to  thin  shoes  and  bare  bones, 
the  Sunday  is  of  immeasurable  significance.  I  confess  that 
this,  the  sublime  side  of  the  Sabbath,  is  but  dimly  outlined 
in  the  industrial  mind.  A  clean  shirt,  a  nap,  and  a  news- 
paper are  the  popular  conceptions  of  Sunday  privileges. 
The  higher  attributes  of  spiritual  character — the  qualities 
and  beneficence  of  such  divine  forces  as  Faith  in  God  and 
Immortality  in  man — these  lights,  if  projected  on  the  Sun- 


SIDE-LIGIITS    ON    THE    LABOR    PROBLEM.  325 

day  life  of  Labor,  are  generally  from  the  home  candlestick 
of  a  family  Bible,  or  of  some  unextinguished  memory  of  a 
hallowed  hearthstone  in  childhood,  the  modern  church  not 
counting  for  much  in  tenement-houses  and  back  streets. 
There  can  be  no  mistake  in  the  trend  of  opinion  on  this 
point.  The  poor  are  not  at  home  in  our  ecclesiastical  tem- 
ples. With  a  personal  reverence  for  the  house  of  God,  that 
has  made  a  sailor's  Bethel  in  a  rope-walk,  in  spite  of  tar 
and  broken  windows,  more  awe-inspiring  than  the  sacred 
stones  of  Westminster  Abbey,  I  have  been  driven  to  the 
woods  with  my  Testament  to  escape  the  mockery  of  seeing 
the  poor  snubbed  and  sat  down  upon  by  arrogance  with  a 
shirt-stud,  and  vanity  with  feathers  on  an  empty  head,  and 
silks  to  cover  a  bloodless  heart.  It  goes  with  the  telling, 
that  brother  Dives  has  got  a  "  corner  "  on  church  privileges, 
a  state  of  things  perhaps  not  so  common  as  popular  preju- 
dice makes  it,  but  fatal  in  its  issues  as  involving  moral 
ruin.  •  The  Sunday  side  of  labor  lias  many  spires,  and  will 
liavc  more  when,  under  the  weather-vane,  there  is  less  of 
pride  in  the  pew  and  more  of  common-sense  in  the  pulpit. 
The  question  of  Sunday  labor  is  being  increasingly  agit.-ited, 
and  will  presently  involve  the  best  of  Christian  statesman- 
ship in  meeting  the  public  demand  on  its  duties.  It  must 
counteract  the  beer-garden  and  the  Sunday  picnic,  or  the 
nation  will  be  dumped  into  lager  and  licentiousness.  The 
religious  side  of  this  question  is  the  most  vital  of  all.  If 
able  to  live  on  the  plane  of  its  sublime  verities,  it  can  lift 
labor  to  its  levels,  and  much  of  so-called  necessary  Sunday 
labor  will  disappear;  but,  as  it  is,  to  save  a  kid  shoe  it  will 
pay  a  car-driver.  Cigar  stores  llourish  near  church  doors, 
and  the  newsboy  has  a  Sunday  bonus  on  a  deacon's  pocket. 
This  decay  of  conscience  is  general.  The  Sunday  labor  ag- 
itation may  recall  some  old  virtues,  with  less  of  milk  and 
more  of  muscle  in  the  sleeve,  and  labor  securing  its  rights 


326  THE    LABOR    PROBLEM. 

to  rest  may  not  have  to  wake  up  the  Christian  cliurch  to 
find  a  room  for  an  unexpected  lodger. 

THE    ULTIMATE    QUESTION — "  CHRIST    OR    BARABBAS  ?" 

All  supposable  rights  and  possibilities  of  industrial  life 
being  secured,  it  will  still  be  reserved  to  the  old  laws  of 
virtue  and  righteousness  to  make  mankind  the  better  or  the 
worse  for  its  pi-ivileges.  The  illusion  of  immunity  from 
discord,  avarice,  tyranny,  and  crime,  is  destined  to  be  dis- 
pelled, even  in  the  millennium  of  rights  and  the  Arcadia  of 
profits.  Human  nature  is  not  changed  by  putting  it  in  new 
clothes  and  parlors.  Its  betterment  is  from  other  sources. 
We  know  of  but  one  effective  and  permanent  agency  in 
this  direction.  In  a  somewhat  unusual  and  varied  experi- 
ence, embracing  opportunities  for  observation  and  study  in 
almost  all  possible  conditions  and  degrees  of  society,  it  has 
become  a  personal  and  unassailable  conviction  of  the  writer 
that  the  precepts,  provisions,  and  spirit  of  true  Christianity 
are  the  solitary  and  sublime  functions  of  all  that  makes 
man  equal  to  his  duties  and  his  responsibilities.  The  veri- 
ties of  conscience,  justice,  divine  government,  life,  death, 
and  judgment,  arc  the  same  under  a  monarch's  crown  and 
a  miner's  cap;  their  violation  is  as  equable  in  results — a 
jewelled  hand  bleeds  when  cut,  and  a  millennium  will  be  in 
disturbed  conditions  if  vice  and  unrighteousness  exist.  The 
world,  if  made  into  a  planet-parlor  and  a  communistic  free- 
lunch,  will  not  prevent  greed  from  taking  the  easiest  chair, 
and  putting  its  fork  into  the  fattest  sardine.  The  crisis- 
point  will  never  be  passed  by  individuals  or  societies  where 
the  old  question  is  silenced,  "  Christ  or  Barabbas  ?"  and  to 
my  fellow-workmen,  with  whom  I  have  shared  the  crust 
and  the  scars  of  toil,  I  would  emphasize  in  this  concluding 
article  the  old  doctrine,  "  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God 
and  Plis  righteonsncss,  and  all  these  things  will  be  added 


SIDE-LIGHTS    ON    THE    LADOR    PROBLEM.  827 

unto  yon."  This  is  hoary  with  age,  is  clouded  with  abuse, 
and  to  some  but  a  fossilized  canon  of  exploded  heresy,  but 
if  you  wipe  the  mud  from  the  coin  you  will  find  tho  mint- 
age reliable  and  the  Tuetal  sound  —  the  only  currency  of 
true  and  abiding  progress  in  individual  character  and  so&ial 
advancement. 


THE  LABOR   HYMN  OF  THE   REPUBLIC. 
By  Feed  Woodrow. 

From  sea  to  sea,  and  crag  to  crag, 

O'er  all  the  land  the  people  wake. 
And  lifted  hands  from  bondage  free 

The  fruits  of  Freedom  pluck  and  take ! 
From  eyes  long  blind  the  darkness  falls, 

And  shines  again  the  holy  light. 
Where  Wrong  must  hide  its  branded  face, 

And  flee  the  majesty  of  Right. 

From  fire  of  forge,  and  lamp  of  mine, 

With  labor-scar  and  weather-tan, 
Upon  the  golden  stairs  of  Time, 

The  shadow  of  the  Coming  Man ; 
With  spirit  and  with  faith  unquenched 

It  rises  up  to  meet  the  sun. 
And  crown  with  proud,  unfading  bay 

The  daily  round  of  Duty  done. 

The  cup  of  bitterness  long  pressed 

To  blistered  lips  that  drank  it  dry. 
Is  broken  at  the  sweeter  springs 

No  hand  can  seal,  nor  wealth  deny ; 
And  wrongs  that  o'er  a  thousand  years 

Have  fettered  man  with  curse  and  chain. 
Thy  hand,  0  God !  has  smote  them  down, 

In  death  that  never  wakes  again. 

And  o'er  the  land,  from  sea  to  sea. 

Be  thou,  0  God !  the  Toilers'  shield, 
And  keeper  of  the  sacred  rights 

No  foe  may  steal,  nor  craven  yield; 
And  fill  at  last  the  strong  right  hand, 

That  has  its  work  of  life  to  do. 
With  honors  and  the  golden  sheaves — 
The  crown  of  Duty,  and  its  due. 


INDEX. 


Adams,  Pkof.  IIeniiy  C,  C2,  C3. 

Bakkr,  Rev.  Cuaelbs  11,  D.D.,  140, 

150. 
narnaid,  Dr.  W.  T.,  225-247. 
biiltcisoii,  J.  G.,  lOG-109. 
Rennet,  liobert,  115-117. 
Dettoii,  IIou.  Frank  II.,  243-240. 
Bishop,  lion.  James,  165,  ICG. 
lilackinei-  &  Post,  77. 
IJleyer,  Julius,  173-175. 
Blodget,  Hon.  Lorin,  107-170. 
Boriuf,',  C.  O.,  175, 176. 
Burtt,  J.  II.,  142-145 
Byrkit,  C.  S.,  13G-13a 

Cakpe.nteb,  O.  p.,  171, 172. 
Clark,  Prof.  J.  B.,  CO-62. 
Cole,  Hon.  W.  II.,  170,171. 
Corns,  Jo8Ci)li,  Sr.,  94,  95. 
"Correspondent,  A,"  183. 
Congl»er,  John,  247,243. 
Crawford,  C.  W.,  112. 
Crosby,  Rev.  Howard,  D.D.,  149. 
Cushman,  Ara,  &  Co.,  213,  219. 

Danfop.tu,  a.  n.,  90-03. 
Darnall,J.F.,  102-104. 
Donnelly,  P.  II.,  120,  121. 
Driimmoud,  A.  N.,  90. 

EiiMANN,  Joim,  117, 118. 
Ely,  Richard  T.,  Ph.D.,  7-10. 

Fl.OWKlt,    IION.    FttANK     A.,     102-104, 
239,  240. 


Gaui.bkbt,  MoFadden  &  Cabkky,  70. 
Gibney,  John  A.,  SO,  S3. 
Giddiiigs,  F.  U.,  195-199. 

IIadlky,  Prof.  Abtuub  T.,  03. 
Hale,  E.  E.,  19S,  199. 
Henderson,  Rev.  C.  R.,  D.D.,  248,  249. 
Ilutchius,  llou.  E.  R.,  16S-1C0. 

Jami!8,  Pkof.  E.  J.,  64-<;o. 
Jarrett,  John,  133-130. 
Jevons,  Stanley,  8. 

KF.i,T.oaa,  WARREr*  T.,  85,  SO. 
Kochtitzky,  Hon.  Oscar,  161, 102,  241, 
242. 

Lai'oih.in,  Samtei.,  66,  87. 
Leclahc,  M.,  203-207. 
Lloyd,  U.  D.,  195. 

Maoie,  Jamkb  K.,  119. 
Mason,  David  II.,  17S-1S1. 
McCaniant,  Uou.  Joel  15.,  100,  101. 
McIIngh,  Hon.  I,.,  2&3-2.'>5. 
McLaughlin,  Daniel,  113,  114. 
Morris,  S.J.,  104, 105. 
Myers,  H.  M.,  &  Co.,  109-111. 

NKI.BON,  N.  O.,  S7-S9. 

Newcomb,  Prof.  George  B,  fiO-OS. 

Newton,   Rev.  R.  Hebcr,   D.l).,  140- 

149. 
NIcollH,   Rev.  bainucl   J.,  D.D.,  150- 

152. 


330 


Tkciuiam,  RO.,  101, 102. 
Pond,  Hon.  C.  V.  K.,  249-251. 
Towcll,  Gen.  \V.  U.,  S3-S,-i. 

RmoEi.Y,  CiiAnT.K8,  77-70. 

Roemer,  John,  172, 17."). 
Rynn,  Hon.  D.miel  J.,  242,  243. 
Rylance,  Rev.  J.  U.,  D.U.,  15-2-156. 

Sabsfiklp,  John  C,  1S1-1S3. 
Seligman,  Prof.  E.  R.  A.,  Ph.D.,  53-.''.5. 
Shurr,  Fred,  119, 120. 
Simpelaar,  Matt.  J.,  1G4, 1G5. 
Spaulding,  C.  H.,  75,  70. 
Steele,  G.  M.,  LL.D.,  09-74. 
Stewart,  Ethelberl,  126-133. 
Stewart,  J.  R.,  191-194. 
Swank,  Uou.  J.  M.,  17G-17S. 


Tayloh,  J.  Vincent,  188-191. 
Taylor,  Sedley,  20S. 
Todd,  Elliot,  90. 
Trow,  Edward,  23&-237. 

Vosn,  B.  C,  75,  77. 

Waurkn,    Bishop    IIrnry    W.,   156, 

157. 
Watcrhonse,  Prof.  S.,  56-CO. 
Watcrworth,  James  A.,  17-51. 
Weeks,  Joseph  D.,  23S,  239. 
Wheeler,  D.  H.,  LI..D.,  08,  69. 
Wheeler,  E.  A.,  97-101. 
Woodrow,  Fred,  121-120,  250-327. 
Wood;;,  J.  0.,251,  252. 
"  Workiug-nian,  A,"  139-142. 


SCT    2  2  1962 
Q£C  .1 1 1963 

OCT  ^11968 


8 


W^%l«t8*; 


THE  LIBRM?Y 

TOJIVERSITY  C--^  '■    ■  ■fORNlA 
LOS  ANGELES 


'  3  11! 


58  00878  8779 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    001  149  418 


